Who Pu Sae and Ya Sae are
Pu Sae and Ya Sae (ปู่แสะย่าแสะ) are among the oldest guardian spirits of Chiang Mai. Pu is a paternal grandfather and ya a paternal grandmother, and the names tell you how people relate to them: as ancestors who look after the land and must be fed. Their story belongs to the Lua, the people who lived in the valley before the Tai founded Chiang Mai in the thirteenth century, and they are thought of as the guardians of Doi Suthep, the mountain that rises behind the city.
The story told locally is that the two were man-eating giants who lived on the mountain. When the Buddha came, he taught them and they gave up eating people, but they asked for meat once a year in return for guarding the land. Their son, the story goes, became a monk and later a hermit on Doi Suthep. The yearly buffalo is the price of that bargain: if the spirits are fed, the rains come on time, the harvest is good and the city is safe.
The rite
The ceremony is also called liang dong (เลี้ยงดง), feeding the forest. It once belonged to a set of spirit rites held for the whole city in the eighth and ninth months of the northern calendar, which faded after Bangkok took control of the north’s administration in the late nineteenth century. Today it is kept by the community of Mae Hia and the provincial cultural council, at a ceremonial ground at the foot of Doi Kham, inside Doi Suthep–Pui National Park, south-west of the city.
The day begins with offerings and invitations to the spirits. A buffalo, traditionally black, is killed and its meat and blood laid out as an offering. Then the medium is possessed by the spirits in turn. In the trance, Pu Sae and Ya Sae eat the raw meat and drink the blood through the medium, and the people gathered ask them about the coming year, above all whether the rains will be good.
It is a powerful and, for many visitors, a shocking thing to watch, and it is meant seriously. For the people of Mae Hia it is a duty to their ancestors and a way of asking for rain at the start of the planting season, and it sits comfortably beside Buddhist practice: the same people make merit at the temple, and Wat Phra That Doi Kham, on the hill above, is part of the same story.
When it is held
The date follows the northern Thai lunar calendar, which runs two months ahead of the central Thai one: the rite falls on the 14th day of the waxing moon in the ninth northern month, the seventh month of the central calendar. That puts it in late May or in June. In 2026 it was held on Saturday 30 May. The Buddhist calendar guide explains how the lunar months work.
The same weeks bring Chiang Mai’s other great rite of the season, the festival of the city pillar at Wat Chedi Luang in the old city, when people bring flowers and candles to the guardian of the city.
How to watch respectfully
- Get there early. Crowds gather well before the possession begins. Mae Hia is a short drive south-west of the old city.
- Dress as you would for a temple, with shoulders and knees covered.
- Keep your distance from the medium and the offerings, follow the instructions of the organisers, and do not step into the ceremonial area.
- Photograph quietly, without flash, and ask before photographing people close up.
- Be prepared for the killing of the buffalo and the eating of raw meat. If that is not for you, the morning offerings are the part to see.
Sources
Checked against the sources below. Rules, fees and dates change, sometimes at short notice: confirm with Mae Hia Subdistrict Municipality or the Chiang Mai provincial cultural office before you rely on them.
- Asa Khampha, study of the Pu Sae Ya Sae spirit cult, Suranaree Journal of Social Science 6(2), 2012 (Thai), Suranaree University of Technology
- Doi Suthep–Pui National Park, Department of National Parks