The memo defined child angel dolls as “a doll that is alive”, adding that the figures should be placed in window seats so as not to disturb other passengers and that seatbelts should be worn during take-off and landing, according to reports. Thailand. The dolls, which are said to bring good luck to their owners, became a media sensation this week after a leaked memo from a Thai b…
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Instead, they’re made by a woman named Mae Ning, who then invokes the Hindu mother goddess Parvati to place the soul of a child into the doll. “So airlines aren’t allowed to sell tickets for dolls”, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand was quoted as saying in The Bangkok Post.
If you already get creeped out by regular dolls or can’t stand to look at Chucky of CHILD’S PLAY, you may be very disturbed to hear about the Luk Thep dolls of Thailand, a.k.a. the Child Angels.
Imagine it. You board an aircraft and find that the passenger in the seat next to you isn’t a person but a plastic doll – and its ticket has been paid for. Passengers traveling with the Look Thep will be separated into two different categories; those who purchase additional seats for the dolls and those who do not.
More than 40 passengers have so far turned up at airports with dolls and a restaurant in Bangkok, Neta Grill, has a special offer on meals for the dolls.
Thailand is predominantly Buddhist and has been modernizing rapidly over the past two or three decades but many people are highly superstitious, their Buddhist beliefs co-existing with notions of animism, astrology and “black magic”.
Doting owners have been known to splash out on expensive accessories and jewellery for their dolls.
Founder of the Child Angels’ Club, Mananya Boonmee, said the growing interest in the dolls was also to fill up other needs.
Although Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has stated that those with money issues shouldn’t buy the dolls if they can not afford it, they seem to be offering hope to those who feel they have none.
The price of a doll can range from 1,500 baht (£29, $42) to tens of thousands of baht. Police, meanwhile, warned the dolls could be used to smuggle drugs and busted one with 200 hidden methamphetamine tablets. Even religious questions have been raised about the appropriateness of conducting Buddhist rituals on the dolls.
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Somkiat Thongsri, director of the Supreme Sangha Council’s Secretariat Office, said he has ordered provincial Buddhism offices to investigate a number of reports about monks performing rituals for the dolls.
