Nang Kwak Vs Maneki Neko

 

From Thailand: Nang Kwak

From Japan: Manei Neko

 

I am not sure if Nang Kwak existed earlier in Thai first, or Maneki Neko is earlier in Japan; or which copied which. The reason is that both of them have the same hand gesture and their function is also the same. But what I do know is that Johnny and his newlywed Thai wife was having heated arguments over which should stay put in their Thai restaurant.

 

Nang Kwak is represented as a woman wearing a traditional Thai and sometimes Laotian traditional style dress. She also wears a golden crown on her head and is in the sitting or kneeling position. Her right hand is raised in the Thai way of beckoning a customer, with the palm of the hand pointing downwards. Her left hand is resting on her side or holds a bag full of gold on her lap. She is the patron Deity of all Merchants and Salesmen and can be seen in almost every business establishment in Thailand. Worshippers use to offer Nang Kwak soft drinks to symbolise sweet dealing on that day.

 

Okay. Let us go back to the story of the clashes of the titans:

 

Unlike most of people in Sin-Ma, once Thai started to worship a deity; they will continue throughout. The Sin-Ma people will worship a deity with full enthusiastic for the first month, if they feel that their luck is not changing for good, then on the second month; they would not put any offerings to the deity. And most probably you will see another new deity on the third month. The Thai has only one option: to believe with full faith and without doubt.

 

Johnny wasn’t a fan of Thai deities to begin with. But since his Thai wife insisted of worshipping Nang Kwak so even though he didn’t agree but he has found no reasons to reject his wife. Finally after a few months in operations, as his restaurant business was not progressing as has expected; Johnny wanted to try the Feng Shui method and Japanese beckoning cat, Maneki Neko instead.

 

Even though facing with his wife’s strong objection, Johnny persisted until his wife gave up the struggle and leave the restaurant business to Johnny alone. Well, Johnny is only a businessman; he wasn’t expert in Thai cuisine. Without his wife’s help, as expected; his restaurant was quickly losing customers and finally Johnny has to close shop for good.

 

If you ask me if this incident was attributed to Nang Kwak’s removal; I dare not say. I only know that running a Thai restaurant without good knowledge in authentic Thai cooking will not go very far.