Encyclopaedia Of The Impossible: The Women In Black Of Wat Samian Nari

Previously: The Demon-Sitting Oak Tree Of Onizawa.

Type: CC (Corporeally Challenged).

Period/location of origin: 1990s, Bangkok, Thailand.

Appearance: Subjects, known as the women in black of Wat Samian Nari, appear to be two young women, roughly between the ages of 20 and 28, dressed, as their name might imply, all in black. They are often described as beautiful. They do not speak much, or at all.  

Beyond this, however, descriptions of them vary widely: According to some, one of them has short hair, the other long; however, their hair length or style is not always mentioned. Their outfits may be described besides their color — one young woman in a dress with thin straps, the other in a scoop-neck tee — but not necessarily. Sometimes, they are indistinguishable from living, human women; others, they are clearly otherworldly, with pale faces, red eyes, and blood streaming from their foreheads. When first encountered, they are typically whole, though according to some, they may later be seen having been torn asunder.

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Modus operandi: Subjects will first be encountered not at Wat Samian Nari, but en route to it: Targets — typically men, and often, although not always, cab drivers — may observe subjects waiting by the side of the road late at night in areas of Bangkok known for their nightlife, such as Royal City Avenue, also known as RCA, or the Ratchadaphisek entertainment district. In the event that target is a cab driver, subjects will flag their cab down, appearing to be a fare; in the event that target is simply a person with a car, they may indicate that they are hitchhikers looking for a ride, or they may simply stand there, trusting targets to self-select by stopping for them.

Should a target stop for them and offer them a ride, they will alight in the backseat, where they will sit quietly — silently, even. If spoken to, they will respond very little, if at all. They will speak only of where they wish to go: Wat Samian Nari, the historic temple located in Bangkok’s Chatuchak district.

Upon arrival at Wat Samian Nari, currency may or may not be exchanged in return for the ride. Regardless as to whether it is or is not, target will then find, should they turn around, that the two young women have disappeared from the backseat.

Should target then look to the train tracks that run across the street from the temple — tracks belonging to the SRT Dark Red commuter line — they may witness a terrible sight: The two young women, no longer standing, but dragging themselves across the tracks, their lowers halves gone and their insides no longer… inside.

At this point, target may or may not black out. If they do, they will likely come to in a hospital, having been brought there by concerned passersby, friends, or loved ones. They will have a difficult time convincing others of what they experienced, however.

Following encounters with subjects, some targets have subsequently reported experiencing heart issues for the remainder of their lives.

If currency was exchanged for the ride, target will later find whatever bill or banknote with which they were paid will no longer be a bill or a banknote. They will find instead a leaf in its place.

Containment: Unknown. Subjects are not currently contained. It is not currently known whether it is even possible to contain them.

Additional notes: Wat Samian Nari was originally established in 1857 under the name Wat Khae Rai; it was renamed Wat Samian Nari in 1979 in honor of royal treasury clerk Samian Kham, who had undertaken the restoration of the temple in 1877.

Wat Samian Nari runs on the Dark Red line of the SRT— the State Railway of Thailand, a commuter rail system that makes up part of the mass transportation system in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region. The Dark Red line runs between Bang Sue and Rangsit; the Wat Samian Nari stop is the third stop on the line if beginning at Bang Sue and terminating at Rangsit.

These are the train tracks on which subjects — in life — are said to have died, and the reason they are often seen missing their lower halves.

Accounts of subjects have allegedly been documented since the 1990s, although most reporting of these accounts occurs in the 2000s and beyond, with those who allegedly experienced encounters with subjects recounting their stories many years or decades after the fact.

This reporting may be found in a 2005 episode of the Thai television program ชั่วโมงพิศวง (in translation, Horror Hour or Mysterious Hour), which aired on Channel 7 between 2003 and 2006; in a 2016 article examining the legend published by Thai newspaper Khaosod; in a 2020 article published by Thai News Agency, a subsidiary of Thai state-owned public broadcaster MCOT; and in a 2024 video posted to Thai television network Thairath TV’s YouTube channel.

Various explanations for who or what subjects are have been proposed over the decades, in these reports and others, although none have been satisfactorily proven — and, indeed, may have actually been disproven. These explanations include, but are not limited to:

• Chulee and Sulee Tipsuksri, a pair of sisters said to have died on their way to their mother’s funeral in the 1990s, allegedly having been struck by a train in front of the temple;
• An unnamed pair of friends said to have died on their way to the cremation of the boyfriend of one of the young women, allegedly after their motorbike stalled on the train tracks;
• Etc.

In the case of “Chulee and Sulee Tipsuksri,” it is sometimes said that an article published by the Thai newspaper Khaosod with the headline “Horrible Death, Cut in Half!” reported upon these alleged train collision victims; however, Khaosod looked into their own archives in 2016 in an attempt to verify this claim, and found that there is no such story.

Additionally, Phra Thep Worasitthachan, the longtime abbot of Wat Samian Nari, told MCOT’s Thai News Agency in 2020 that he had been hearing the story of the women in black Of Wat Samian Nari for decades, but had never seen or experienced anything himself; nor had any of the monks at the temple or their neighbors across the street spoken to him of any odd experiences involving any women in black.

Subjects bear much in common with vanishing hitchhiker or phantom hitchhiker legends from a wide variety of countries and cultures, as well as with legends like Kashima Reiko and Teke Teke.

Most vanishing hitchhiking legends do not feature the precise nature of injury of the Women in Black Of Wat Samian Nari — that is, the train collision and subsequent bisection of the body — but the trope of a motorist picking up a beautiful young woman, either as a hitchhiker or taxi fare, only to find that she has vanished upon arrival at the destination and later discovered to have been long dead is very present here. Similarly,  the legends of Kashima Reiko and Teke Teke do not feature the hitchhiking part of the Women In Black Of Wat Samian Nari legend, though they do feature the train collision and bodily bisection.

These connections are worth examining; further research is required.

One final note: It is sometimes said that one need not encounter subjects in order to experience something unsettling at Wat Samian Nari.

Some say that, should one drive over the train tracks, their vehicle may inexplicably stall, whether or not the two not-exactly-young-women are present in the vehicle’s backseat.

Consider yourselves warned.

Recommendation: Don’t pick up any hitchhikers.

If you’re taxi drive, don’t pick up any unsettling fares.

And do NOT drive over the train tracks near Wat Samian Nari.

Just in case.

Resources:

“Cut Into Pieces: The Haunting Of Wat Samian Nari” at Khaosod.

“The Legend Of The Creepy Women In Black Of Wat Samian Nari” at Thai News Agency. (In Thai.)

Mysterious Hour, episode: “The Women In Black” via YouTube – Part 1; Part 2; Part 4. (In Thai. Note: Part 3 appears to be missing.)

Ghost Station, episode 13: “The Women In Black Of Wat Samian Nari” via YouTube. (In Thai.)

Wat Samian Nari official website. (In Thai.)

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[Photos via กสิณธร ราชโอรส, Syced, กสิณธร ราชโอรส/Wikimedia Commons, available under CC BY-SA 4.0 and CC0 1.0 Creative Commons licenses]