Phaya Naga

The Phaya Naga is the great serpent king of Thai and Lao Buddhist folklore, a crested, often many-headed serpent believed to live in the Mekong River and to guard temples, water, and the Buddhist faith.

The Serpent Lord

Phaya means "lord" or "king," so the Phaya Naga is a nāga of the highest rank. The idea came to mainland Southeast Asia with Hinduism and Buddhism from India, and the Khmer empire filled its temples with many-headed nāgas, including at Phimai in what is now northeastern Thailand. Thai and Lao tradition then made the nāga its own. Thai and Lao nāgas are long, crested serpents with ornate scales, often with three, five, seven, or nine heads, and they can take human form.

Above all, the Phaya Naga lives in the Mekong River, which forms much of the border between Thailand and Laos. Many people on both banks believe nāga cities lie beneath the river and under certain forests and caves.

Guardians of the Faith

Nāgas protect Buddhism. Thai and Lao temples have nāga balustrades running down their stairways, the bodies forming the rails and the heads rising at the bottom, as at the famous stairway of Wat Phra That Doi Suthep near Chiang Mai. A story from the Buddhist monastic rules explains a custom still followed in Thailand: a nāga once disguised himself as a man to become a monk, but his true form was revealed while he slept, and the Buddha ruled that only humans could be ordained. In memory of the nāga's devotion, men about to be ordained are still called nak.

The Naga Fireballs

Every year near the end of the Buddhist Rains Retreat, in October, crowds gather on the Mekong at Nong Khai to watch glowing balls of light rise from the river. Many believe the nāgas send them up to honor the Buddha. The cause of these "naga fireballs" is disputed. Explanations have ranged from natural gas to human pranks, and no theory has been widely accepted.

Powers

The Phaya Naga controls water and rain, brings fertility and prosperity, and can bless or punish. Thai lottery players and merchants visit nāga shrines hoping for luck, while folk tales warn that nāgas can sink boats or drown those who offend them.

Legacy

The nāga is one of the most visible images in Thai and Lao life, found on temples, boats, festival rockets, and souvenirs, and in popular TV dramas. See our India and Southeast Asia page for the nāga's wider history.

Related

• Nāga: Nāgas are serpent beings of Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain tradition, often cobras or half-human figures with cobra hoods, who live in underwater or underground kingdoms, guard treasure, and control rain and water.
• Dragon Kings (Longwang): The Dragon Kings are the dragon rulers of the seas, rivers, and lakes in Chinese religion and folklore, rain-giving lords who live in crystal palaces, take human form, and answer to the Jade Emperor.
• Rồng (Vietnamese dragon): The rồng is the Vietnamese dragon, a rain-bringing, benevolent water spirit and symbol of the nation, whose people trace their descent from the dragon lord Lạc Long Quân and the mountain fairy Âu Cơ.
• Bakunawa: The Bakunawa is a giant sea serpent of Visayan folklore in the Philippines that swallows the moon, causing eclipses, and in one famous tale devoured six of the seven moons that once lit the sky.
• Makara: The makara is a sea creature of Indian myth and art, part crocodile, part fish, and often part elephant, that serves as the mount of the river goddess Ganga and the sea god Varuna and guards temple gateways across Asia.
• Dragons Across Cultures
• Dragon Species

Sources and Further Reading

• Sumet Jumsai, Naga: Cultural Origins in Siam and the West Pacific (Oxford University Press, 1988)
• J. Ph. Vogel, Indian Serpent-Lore, or the Nāgas in Hindu Legend and Art (London: Arthur Probsthain, 1926)
• I. B. Horner, trans., The Book of the Discipline (Vinaya-Piṭaka), vol. 4, Mahāvagga (Pali Text Society, 1951)

Cite this entry: “Phaya Naga,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/phaya-naga.