Mae Yanang

Mae Yanang are water spirits venerated across Thai, Cambodian and Laotian cultures as guardians of boats and, in modern practice, of other vehicles as well. Each is pictured wearing the traditional dress of the culture that reveres her, and small offerings or garlands are commonly tied to the vessel or vehicle she is believed to protect. The custom draws on an older layer of female deity worship in the region, alongside figures such as the rice goddess Mae Phosop and the fortune goddess Nang Kwak, and some accounts trace a further connection to the worship of the Chinese sea goddess Mazu.