BANGKOK (AFP) – As millions across Southeast Asia suffer a blistering heatwave that is melting railway tracks, a Thai village resorted to an unusual method to seek rain: parading a Japanese cartoon cat.
Thailand has sweltered in recent weeks as the temperature climbs across the region, with experts saying climate change is making heatwaves more frequent, longer and more intense.
In the kingdom’s central Nakhon Sawan province – which has been without rain for months – villagers in Phayuha Khiri District hoisted Japanese manga cat Doraemon to break the drought.
Sparkly dressed paraders bore a tinsel-decked cage containing the stuffed toy through the village while onlookers sprinkled it with water.
Theirs was a new take on an old dry season ritual known as Hae Nang Meaw, literally, the parading of a female cat.
The well-known feline aversion to water means some link the animals to rainfall, with their furious meows after being drenched thought to summon precipitation.
Most villagers no longer use real cats, lifting Doraemon or Hello Kitty dolls instead.
