Driving to a Buddhist temple on the northern fringes
of Bangkok, beauty salon owner Natsuda Jantaptim is
running through her youngest daughter’s likes and
dislikes.
“We sleep in the same bed together, she has her own
pillow and blankets,” she told AFP, her daughter
sitting quietly in the front passenger seat.
“We didn’t switch the air-con on two nights ago
because she was cold. In the morning, she likes to
drink strawberry milk,” she added.
On first reckoning, it sounds like the everyday
observations of a dedicated mother.
Except the daughter Natsuda refers to isn’t real.
Certainly not in the living, breathing flesh and
blood sense.
She is a meticulously groomed plastic doll, part of
the latest celebrity-fuelled superstitious craze
that has swept the country — much to the dismay of
the kingdom’s conservative military rulers.
Known in Thai as “luuk thep” (child angels), the
pricey dolls, which can cost up to $600, were first
popularised a little over a year ago by celebrities
who claimed dressing up and feeding the dolls had
brought them professional success.
Believers say the dolls — many of which are blessed
and have sacred scripts drawn on them by a monk —
contain the spirit of a real child and must be
treated as a living being.
The theory runs that those who look after their
dolls like members of the family will see good
fortune returned to them.
As a result, plastic dolls are now taking their
seats at restaurant tables, cinemas and even on
airplanes.
– Luck, magic and belief –
Natsuda, 45, lives with her very real 21-year-old
daughter.
But that has not dimmed her affection for the doll,
auspiciously named ‘Ruay Jang’ (So Rich).
“Since I got ‘Ruay Jang’ my life has really changed.
For example I won the lottery which I had never won
before,” she explained.
After praying for help from her doll, she added, a
friend paid back a significant loan after years of
fruitless efforts to chase it down.
Asked what she would say to those who think her
credulous she replied: “It’s a personal belief, I
cannot blame those who don’t believe in it but I
believe in what I worship.”
In many ways Thailand’s child angel craze is simply
the latest manifestation of a deeply superstitious
society that places enormous emphasis on warding
away bad luck and making good merit.
More than 90 percent of Thais identify themselves as
Buddhist. But the country’s Buddhism is known for
its syncretism, comfortably blending many animist
and Hindu traditions into daily worship.
Many Thais fervently believe in good and malevolent
spirits — and that offerings or the latest lucky
charm will ward off bad karma.
In the late 2000s a style of large amulet became the
latest “must have” item — often selling for
thousands of dollars each — following the death of a
popular police officer who claimed the charms helped
him solve a murder case.
The luuk thep craze appears to have divided Thais.
Some see it as a natural extension of their merit-
making traditions while others deride it as a
commercial ruse and symbol of the dumbing down of
Buddhism.
“I freak out sometimes when I see them on the
train,” admitted Lakkhana Ole, a 31-year-old graphic
designer from Bangkok who says she spots dolls
increasingly often around the city.
A poll this week by Bangkok’s Suan Dusit Rajabhat
University found two-thirds of Thais saw the dolls
as something positive if it gave them direction or
helped alleviate loneliness.
But the same poll also found that 72 percent of
respondents dismissed them as the hocus-pocus of
overly superstitious people.
– ‘Damn you, you idiot’ –
“It reflects that society is perverse,” Phra Buddha
Issara, a conservative nationalist monk, famous for
his fiery denunciations of commercialism with
mainstream Thai Buddhism told AFP.
“If you’re lonely… you can just go out and talk to
your neighbours, interact more with others, do good
things for public, help the blind, sweep floors or
grow plants,” he added.
Asked if he would he bless someone’s doll he
replied: “The only thing they would receive from me
is: ‘Damn you, you idiot.”
Issara’s criticism has been matched by Thailand’s
justice minister, a former general, and the
country’s top police officer, both of whom have
publicly fretted that the craze is getting out of
control.
Phra Ajarn Supachai, a monk in Nonthaburi’s Bangchak
temple has no such qualms. He regularly conducts
prayer sessions for luuk thep dolls and their owners
— for a donation.
“People began turning up with the dolls about three
years ago,” he told AFP. “Now we get around ten
people a week.”
Natsuda’s friend Mae Ning is a regular. Last week
she took Natsuda to chant prayers as the saffron-
robed Supachai anointed all those present, dolls
included, with a stick soaked in sacred water.
Mae Ning, an avid collector and trader in luuk thep
dolls, believes many Thais are looking for comfort
in uncertain times.
“Some people are stressed about Thailand’s bad
economy, its politics, their jobs and finances, so
they want something to attach to,” she explained.
“When people have the dolls, they feel that they are
happy just like they are in another world.”
Natsuda, admits many find her attachment to Ruay
Jang unusual.
“But honestly I don’t care because what I do doesn’t
cause anyone trouble,” she said.
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