Terrified villagers are forcing their husbands to wear women’s clothing and makeup to bed in fear an evil widow ghost will kill them.
Other residents of the remote hamlet in Nakhon Phanom, northeast Thailand, are hanging scarecrows with huge penises outside their homes.
The village of 90 people flew into a panic after five fit and healthy young men died suddenly in their sleep in recent weeks.
They believed a widow’s ghost was terrorising the village by seducing men in their sleep and taking their spirits to the afterlife for her to have her way with them.
Terrified villagers are hanging scarecrows with huge penises outside their homes in fear of an evil widow ghost ‘killing their husbands’
Deeply superstitious locals in response put scarecrows wearing red clothes with giant 80cm erect penises with a painted red tip outside their homes.
Some also have labels on them saying ‘there is no man here’ and others made their husbands wear women’s clothes and makeup to bed.
The makeshift solution appeared to have worked as not a single man died since the scarecrows were made about a week ago.
Relieved pensioner Nong Ayu, 68, said everyone was afraid of the widow ghost and there were rumours men in neighbouring villages had also died.
‘Nobody knows why and the village elders are afraid that the young teenagers will die next. There could be no more men left here,’ she said.
The five deaths of the otherwise healthy men started earlier this month. They died in their sleep shortly after having a bath and going to bed.
Villagers believed large penises were a symbol of masculinity and strength which defended against the ghost widow – drawing her to the scarecrows instead of their men
Relieved pensioner Nong Ayu, 68, said everyone was afraid of the widow ghost and there were rumours men in neighbouring villages had also died
Villagers believed large penises were a symbol of masculinity and strength which defended against the ghost widow – drawing her to the scarecrows instead of their men.
Some wives even made their husbands wear makeup and women’s clothes when they went to bed, in the hope that the ghost widow would mistake them for a female and stay away.
‘The deaths first started with two men in their 40s who were physically strong. They didn’t have any diseases,’ Piyatida Wai, 36, said.
‘They had been bathing then went to bed like normal. Their relatives found them dead in the morning.
‘Now my son is afraid that his father will die. We have put the scarecrows up outside the homes. They also have a label on them which says “there is no man here”.
‘The penis symbolises masculinity. Since hanging in front of the house, no man has died. The villagers do it and we’re comforted by our faith.’
‘The deaths first started with two men in their 40s who were physically strong. They didn’t have any diseases,’ Piyatida Wai, 36, said
Other residents said the village was always a very normal place to live but the recent deaths shook them.
Johnny, 53, who has a Thai mother and American father, said: ‘I believe that the ghost of the widow is causing healthy men to die. There have been five deaths already here.
‘My wife and child are afraid that I could die and they wanted the scarecrow to protect me. Every house has done the same.
‘The long penis about 80cm long with threaten the ghost when she arrives and she will not dare to pass it and enter. It will keep her away and keep the men safe.’