In 1826, the Lao army invaded Khorat. With the assistant governor away, his wife Khunying Mo, stepped up to lead the defence. She organised Thai soldiers and villagers alike to take up arms and together they defeated the bigger, stronger invaders. The reigning monarch of the time, King Rama III rewarded Khunying Mo's courage by giving her the title Thao Suranaree. Her statue stands in the centre of Nakhon Ratchasima in front of the Chumphon Gate where it's a popular object of worship, while a festival in her honour is held in the city at the end of March and the beginning of April each year.