Car Puppet Fad

[ncr]

What is it with Thai people attaching small dolls (teddy bears etc.) to the hook under their car's rear bumper? This curious custom has spread dramatically during the last few months, according to my observations.

Must surely be supposed to bring good luck to the driver? Maybe there's a connection to the recent Jatukam Ramathep craze...?

I dunno, but I find it both silly and a bit sad. Apart from the inescapable fact that they get dirty, dangling behind the wheels a few centimetres above road level, always looks to me like the poor little guys are being hanged.... :eek:

[FarangBha]

Same Q asked recently elsewhere...

Apparently it signifies the drivier is 'available' - just like the 'sot' t-shirt fad of a coupla years back.

Someone else told me it keeps mutts away from the car.

Observation suggests another fad gone wild.

[GWR]

Channel 3 have just been running an item about this phenomenon in Thailand.

We weren't exactly concentrating on it, but this is what we sort of found out. It seems to have originated in Korea as a sort of good luck thing. But there's more to it than that. The idea is that if you have an older vehicle that at some point in its life was involved in an accident in which someone/something was killed, the doll (tookata in Thai) stops the soul from following you on your travels.

Thais picked it up from their current obsession with Korean soap operas. Apparently Thais just think it is cute and good luck, and aren't too bothered about the necessity to involve roadkill in the equation.

Out and about, I have seen seen the craze spread here in recent months. And it does tend to be a fad for spoilt-rich kids in skinny-tired boy-racers, urban hicks with blue-light bass-bin pick-up truck backs and nerds in souped-up tinny minis with gophaster stripes and constantly beeping car alarms. Just the sort of people who might have a few roadkill decals on the driver's door (even if only for rescue squad workers and scabby dogs). Just the sort of people I would gladly see followed by a few hungry ghosts. I must snip a few off in my travels. Easily done!

[ncr]

Saw a public bus (blue-white) with doll this morning...... :rolleyes:

(Well if the "roadkill-ghost" theory is true indeed, Thailand's reckless bus drivers would have reasons enough to resort to these cute little talismans...)

[ncr]

Another strange thing I have always been wondering about: a great number (if not the majority) of trucks have bundles of what seems like strips of rubber (maybe 0.5 - 1 cm wide, 30-50 cm long each) attached before or behind the wheels. I am sure you've all noticed this before.

What the heck are these for? It's completely beyond me. I have never seen this in any country but Thailand. :confused:

Some mysterious purpose, or just decoration?

[FarangBha]

Doesnt that have something to do with static??

[jpatokal]

What the heck are these for? It's completely beyond me. I have never seen this in any country but Thailand. :confused:

Some mysterious purpose, or just decoration?
To stop pebbles from being flung out towards passersby/the windshields of following cars? :confused:

[GWR]

Menace of the dangling dolls

The Chiang Mai Transport Office will crack down on the recent trend of drivers hanging cute dolls underneath their vehicles or from their exhaust pipes by fining offenders up to Bt2,000 from July 1, though some motorists feel the authorities would do better to focus on other traffic violations.

In Bangkok, meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police are checking to see whether the practice runs counter to any existing laws - possibly the law prohibiting the installation of unauthorised items on vehicles, which is punishable with a fine of up to Bt1,000.

Chiang Mai Transport chief Chanchai Kilapaeng said yesterday that hanging dolls underneath vehicles - done in the belief that any evil spirits on the road will possess the dolls instead of harming the drivers - might cause road accidents and was against the law.


He said his office would continue campaigning for people to stop this practice until next Saturday, after which it would take tougher action by imposing fines. Fines will also be levied on vehicles carrying Japanese registration plates or wrong-sized plates, he added.


However, Chiang Mai Police deputy commander Colonel Chamnan Ruadrew said the provincial transport office had not contacted him about the matter but, if they did, he would look into which laws the hanging dolls violated.


No drivers have been arrested for hanging dolls so far, he said. Motorist Sanchakorn Trachu, 24, said the transport office's action was against an individual's rights and he did not believe doll-hanging caused accidents.


"Hanging cute dolls reduces motorists' stress," he said, warning that if arrests were made over this, local youngsters might protest.


Another Chiang Mai motorist, Natthanan Wongleukiart, 24, voiced a similar view and urged the authority to do something more productive, such as cracking down on cars playing loud music and drivers using mobile phones or dodging vehicle tax.


The Nation
CHIANG MAI



http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06/23/national/national_30037623.php

[ncr]

hanging dolls underneath vehicles - done in the belief that any evil spirits on the road will possess the dolls instead of harming the driversSo there we got the explanation, if we can believe the Nation reporters..... GWR was obviously on the right track in his earlier post.

Chiang Mai Police deputy commander Colonel Chamnan RuadrewCool last name, that! If that is in fact the transliteration of the Thai word รวดเร็ว, it means "fast".... maybe he should consider working for the Highway Police.

Motorist Sanchakorn Trachu, 24, said the transport office's action was against an individual's rights and he did not believe doll-hanging caused accidents.And I don't believe doll-hanging prevents harm caused by evil spirits! (Seems we're in sort of a stalemate here.)

"Hanging cute dolls reduces motorists' stress," he said...but it increases the stress for the poor dolls, can't you see? :rolleyes:

...warning that if arrests were made over this, local youngsters might protest.Oh how I pity them. Please, please, don't take our dolls away! We need them so badly.

Another Chiang Mai motorist, Natthanan Wongleukiart, 24, voiced a similar view and urged the authority to do something more productive, such as cracking down on cars playing loud music and drivers using mobile phones or dodging vehicle tax.Well, yes, I agree. Or much better, cracking down on unsafe / polluting vehicles, and drunk and reckless drivers!