Bananas.org - The Ghost of Kluay Tanee - from a 150 year old Ancient Thai Script

Hey Bob, this one's for ya! I asked and I asked and finally my Professor pal dug up this transcript of a 150 year old ancient Thai script from one of the archives. Hope you like it. Please pardon the English, it's a direct translation.

Please just read this as an entertaining folklore and do not let it put you off from keeping this nice plant. Man, I got like 40 of them!:ha:

Kluay Tanee is a home of a female spirit named “Tanee”. She has a beautiful face with long hair. She has a fragrant skin. Her hands and feet are light red, like a pigeon feet. Her lip has the color of ripen ivy gourd fruit. Her body shape is similar to the trunk shape of Musa balbisiana she resided.

Tanee may come out to seduce a man to have sexual intercourse with her. Once having sex with her, the guy can’t pay any attention to other women. If he tries to have the other girl without getting a permission from her, Tanee will go after that girl and kill her. With her permission due to his honesty, the guy will easily get the girl with the help of Tanee. Some said, the guy will loose weight until death soon after having sex with Tanee.

Because of this ghost, people prefer not to grow the species near home. If one wants to get the banana leaves for use, the leaves have to be broken or cut before taking into a house. Taking the whole leaf into a house will cause the family member to be soon death. In the olden days, people lay three leaves of the species at the bottom of coffin.

When the plant is in bloom, some may offer pig head, desert, rice, flower, candle, incense etc. to her. Some even place ring and necklace at the inflorescent and tie a red cloth around the pseudostem as her skirt. This practice is to ask her to protect every one in the house and, at its best, get some luck. This is because some believe that Tanee only stay in the plant that blooms. Some said the plant that has Tanee is the one that has a clean pseudostem and green leaves without dried leaf sheathes. The area around the canopy is also clean.

More about this Tanee banana: If the inflorescent comes out at the middle of the pseudostem instead of the tip of the pseudostem, it is believe that there is a baby ghost “Kuman Thong” in that inflorescent. :waving:

Post script; The Thais are pretty wary of this plant. I think all Thais know of Tanee as a spirit in the Musa balbisiana, though not all are aware of the full account.

The p-stem is used as a religious carving on certain festivities and for funerals. I have seen pix of the carving which is done on a thin strip of the p-stem and it is very intricate. Recently at the funeral of the King's Sister a famous artisan was brought in to do a series of carvings for that occasion.