Working with Phra Ngang
This page exists because people ask. It describes how to work with Phra Ngang if you already have a consecrated piece — an amulet or statue from a monk or ajarn. It is not a claim that this flag should be worshipped.
Who This Is For
If you're drawn to Phra Ngang you probably already know why. He's an underground folk saint who brings down taboo energies, forces honesty, and provokes growth. You don't stumble across a page like this by accident.
To be clear about what this page is: it's guidance for people who already have, or intend to acquire, a consecrated Phra Ngang piece — an amulet or small statue from a monk or ajarn. Those are the actual focus of practice, and the instructions below assume you have one or are working toward one. The flags for sale on this site are not meant to be ritually worked — they're tributes from a devotee, devotional art meant to be hung above an existing shrine. That's the most they claim to be.
Consecrated cloths of Phra Ngang are rare and hard to find, which is a large part of why I wanted to make these — see the Dedication for the full background, and What You Receive for what arrives with each piece.
Three Things That Actually Matter
Pray to the Buddha first.
This is not optional and it is not symbolic. In Thai practice any worldly figure — Phra Ngang included — sits under the protection of the Buddha. Without this opening you are addressing Phra Ngang outside that protection, which is unwise and which I don't endorse under any circumstance.
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammā-sambuddhassa.
Homage to the Blessed One, the Worthy One, the Perfectly Self-Enlightened One. Recited three times.
Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi. Dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi. Saṅghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi.
I go to the Buddha for refuge. I go to the Dhamma for refuge. I go to the Sangha for refuge.
Make merit.
Phra Ngang is associated with desire, intoxication, gambling, and worldly appetite. Working with that kind of energy without building merit is like leveraged trading without a margin buffer. It works until it doesn't, and when it doesn't it goes fast.
Merit isn't complicated. Give sincerely. Help someone. Dedicate the good you've done from your heart before you make a request. In Buddhist cosmology even the gods benefit from merit-making — Phra Ngang included. That's part of why a percentage of every sale from this collection goes to the Childline Thailand Foundation. I'm making merit in his name as part of the project itself.
Be honest with yourself.
This is the most important one. People who go to Phra Ngang without being clear about what they actually want, what they're willing to give, or what they're running from get into trouble quickly. He's not a safe figure in the soft sense. He's a reliable figure in the hard sense. Those are different things.
Know what you're asking for. State it plainly. Don't dress it up.
The Practice
The traditional time to work with Phra Ngang is Thursday at midnight. Typical offerings include water and whiskey, jasmine flowers, sandalwood or jasmine incense, and two red candles.
Address your consecrated amulet or statue. Place it above eye level, on an altar surface or a clean elevated spot. Avoid the floor, the bathroom, anywhere below the waist.
Open with the refuge prayer. Make your offerings. Speak the mantra — mine is Om Phra Ngang mali ma ma, basically just come to me, come to me. You don't need fancy Pali. You need to mean it.
State what you're asking for, plainly. Dedicate the merit you've accumulated sincerely from your heart. Then come back. The relationship gets built by repetition.
A pha yant is traditionally hung above the altar, not placed on it — so if you keep a shrine, that's where the flag goes.
Three Hard Rules
- If you get an amulet or small statue of Phra Ngang, never place it higher than the Buddha. He sits under Buddha, always.
- Never offer him raw meat.
- Never ask him to curse anyone.
None of these are optional.
Everyone's going to experience him differently. If you live in Bangkok or Singapore, seek out a teacher. It's not unheard of for North American collectors (like me) to fall into the practice backwards and wind up learning the hard way, all the way down the stairs.
A Note on the Relationship
After years of working with Phra Ngang, he became to me a mirror and a kind of shadow. It's no longer clear to me whether he is in me, or I am in him, or whether we are both an expression of — or an aperture for — something larger. I don't think that's a warning. I think that's just what ten years looks like.
I've been around these kinds of spirits for so long that a lot of times I don't even notice them, but sensitive people who enter my apartment report getting emotional, dizzy or even physically faint. That's how strong these kinds of entities actually are.
For background on the figure, see Dedication. For what arrives with each piece, see What You Get. For ritual use questions, see FAQ. To buy a flag, visit Buy.