Lim Kor Niew

A seventeenth-century woman who, according to Thai legend, traveled from China to Pattani (southern Thailand) to find her elder brother Lim Toh Kiam. Her brother had married a local Muslim woman and had converted to Islam. She told him that their mother was sick but he refused to return to China because he was too preoccupied with the construction of the Krue Se mosque.

This greatly upset Lim Kor Niew and out of protest hung herself from a cashew tree. Before she died, she made a curse that the Krue Se mosque must never be completed. Local villagers believe her curse was successful since the work on the mosque has never been completed because of various incidents, such as fires and lightning.

The local Chinese people buried her body and carved her image from the cashew tree, which became an object of worship.

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