“This was when he was 4,” she says as she hands over a picture of her holding **ng Pet (Diamond). “I’ve put a new body on him since then.” Motionless in her lap, **ng Pet sits bejeweled in a fine white dress, Boonmi happily caressing his arms.
**ng Pet is 5 years old, 2 feet tall and a ‘Luk Thep’ — literally, Child Angel — doll. He’s also just one doll of thousands in the latest Thai craze that recently enraptured, and then exasperated, large swathes of Thai people. Read more...