
Photo: Facebook/Nongningbowie

Photo: Facebook/Nongningbowie
Mae Ning now makes thousands of dolls, each waiting to be adopted by a new mother or father. She modifies factory-made dolls by adding weight and styling their hair. Then she conducts a ritual, invoking the power of the Hindu goddess Parvati, to create new children’s souls to inhabit the dolls. All the dolls are then given names and she counts their age starting from the day they “came to life”. So all the dolls are under three years of age. Sometimes, customers leave dolls with her as well, for her to fill with new souls. “We treat them as if they’re really alive,” she said. “I created a soul into it. Can’t you see that he looks very alive? They’re not just spirits. They’re children’s souls. They are the souls I created by chanting incantation.” Mae Ning is quite particular about not using the souls of dead children, and denies adding dead fetuses. She says she fills her dolls with “abundance” and “seeds” that represent life’s essence.
Photo: Facebook/Nongningbowie
“It’s like I have the goddess in my body,” she added. “I practice religious precepts. I don’t know how to explain it. I am the body of Parvati, and I collect and love the dolls. Look Thep came from the idea that I’m the body of Goddess Parvati. And this is my child.” Mae Ning says that the dolls have filled a void in many people’s lives. “When we raise a child, some children are stubborn and give us a headache,” she said. “Some people never found love. Some lost their child. After they adopted a Look Thep, their life has changed. From a broken family where they argue, they now have a cute Look Thep. Suddenly, the family is full of love. This is the case for most of my customers.”Putchraporn Kuntaku, who discovered the Look Thep dolls through Mae Ning’s Facebook page, says that the dolls don’t really come to life for everyone. “Mostly, it’s people who love dolls who can see and feel which one has a soul. It’s more about what we feel,” she said. “People who don’t love dolls would say all dolls are the same. They cannot tell the difference no matter how hard they try.” “Maybe it’s just my imagination, but when I have my doll with me, I feel like I have someone by my side,” she said. via Coconuts TV