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The Myth of Mae Posop, the Goddess of Grain

The rainy season in Thailand is the time to cultivate rice, the most important food for the Thai people. In the ancient agriculture-based society, people usually turned to different gods and goddesses for fertility and good harvests. Among these divinities, Mae Posop was the most significant of all for farmers.

For hundreds of years, Mae Posop, the goddess of grain, rice in particular, has been worshipped by the Thai people just the way Demeter of the ancient Greeks was. Normally, she is presented in the figure of a long-haired Thai woman wearing a Thai-style frontlet and shawl, sitting on the floor with legs tucked back and holding a full ear of rice in her right hand.

There're different myths about Mae Posop relating to the origin of the rice. But one has it that in the old days, the seed of rice automatically grew with no need to plant it. Its size was five times larger than the human fist and was silver with a pleasant smell. Unfortunately, an ill-conditioned widow husking the rice very roughly hit the seed with a big piece of wood. The seed was shattered and scattered to different locations. One was the place where Mae Posop lives. Finding out what had happened, she became angry at the disrespect shown her, and prevented rice from growing for a thousand years. The other divinities tried to persuade her to return to the land by claiming that another Buddha had been incarnated. Eventually she agreed, but only on condition that the rice seed became smaller and mankind needed not only to harvest but also cultivate the plant. Furthermore, all due respect should be shown not only to the rice but to Mae Posop herself. This is why right down to the present day, the Thai people perform ceremonies acknowledging their gratitude to and respect for this beneficent deity.

One of these ceremonies is the tham kwan khao ritual, which is still performed in the country. The rite differs according to local custom, but is usually held anually three to seven days after the harvest in August, farming families going in procession to their granaries and offering flowers and other tokens of respect there to the goddess.

There are also other interesting legends relating to Mae Posop, but to hear them you have to go out to the country, since we city folks, so distant from the source of our most important form of sustenance, know very little about them.