The story is told by a tribe living in the far north of Thailand. In modern times, the three stars are called Mintaka, Alnilam and Alnitak. Betelgeuse also has another name in the northern Thai language, Upem.
The name comes from the daughter of a hunter couple who lived in a certain village.
The girl's mother had been pregnant for three years, but there was no sign of her giving birth. The villagers were afraid that the child would be a demon, so they chased the couple out of the village. After the couple wandered the forest for three months, the mother gave birth to a girl and died. The father named the girl Upem, which means "father's beloved child" in northern Thai. The girl grew up to be very beautiful.

In the village across the river where the girl lived, there was a young man named Kun Salm Lor. He was a hardworking and good-natured merchant. One day, he crossed the river to do business in the village where Upam lived, and fell in love with her at first sight. The young man whispered his love to Upam, and they fell deeply in love with each other. Although their parents had their own reasons for wanting to marry, they agreed, and Upam came to live in the young man's village, but when the young man was not around, his mother-in-law was always mean to Upam.

Upem was pregnant but could not bear it any longer and left the young man's house, but she miscarried on the way. She somehow managed to return home, but died in her father's arms. Her father was furious. When the young man returned home, he found Upem not there, so he immediately headed for Upem's parents' house, but he was unable to approach the house due to the angry gazes of all the villagers, and was not even allowed to see Upem's body. So the young man scattered many coins away from the gate of the house, and while the villagers were flocking to the coins, he sneaked into Upem's house.

When he saw Upam's body lying there, he was overcome with grief and died. Upam's father was angry and upset by this turn of events, but he decided to bury them side by side so that they could be together forever. The young man's mother, who followed her son, was filled with anger and hatred and refused to bury her son next to Upam, but he had already been buried. Helpless, the mother still wanted to separate the two, so she stuck the three bamboo poles used to carry the coffin into the ground between the two graves. From this legend, people in northern Thailand began to call the three stars of Orion Dao Kang Salm Thar.
This means the three pole stars that separate the red star Upem (Betelgeuse) from the bright blue star Kun-Sarum-Lor (Rigel).