Fake mews? Confusion over cat at coronation ceremony
BANGKOK: Animal lovers were thrown into confusion over whether a Siamese cat presented to the newly crowned Thai king and his queen was a living feline – or not.
It is a tradition at royal coronations to present a cat – as well as several symbolic household items – to a new monarch as part of the private Assumption of the Royal Residence blessing ceremony, which was held on Saturday at the Chakrabat Biman residence.
Cats are considered lucky by many Thais and the tradition of giving one as a housewarming gift signifies a stable home.
On Sunday morning, several Thai media outlets carried a photo of two uniformed palace officials next to what appeared to be a docile Siamese cat and a fluffy white rooster. The image, distributed by the Bureau of the Royal Household, was not captioned.
But by afternoon, the Thailanguage news site Manager was reporting that the palace had used a “cat doll” instead of a live cat.
A palace official, contacted by Reuters, said: “The royal ceremony required the use of a rooster and a cat. It should not be the focus whether the animals were real or not, but instead the ritual itself is important.”
Reuters was unable to independently confirm whether live animals were used in the ceremony on the photograph.
Facebook page Maewthai.com – “ThaiCat.com” – posted a copy of the palace photo with a message from a well-known cat breeder saying he originally had been asked to select two gentle male Siamese cats for the ceremony but his cats were ultimately not used.
“I feel grateful for His Majesty’s kindness for feeling compassionate about the cats, fearing that the animal would suffer from waiting too long during ceremonies, so the cats were not used,” said the breeder.
The breeder did not directly address whether the cat in the palace photo was a doll.
That ambiguity confused some Thais who posted comments online.
“So is it real or fake cat?” a Facebook user called Niphawan Rakpontee asked.
“This is likely a stuffed cat,” user Prapaporn Tongprasan said.