I didn’t actually learn the origin story, but these smiling faces set into chubby cheeks are everywhere. Temples, restaurants, massage parlors, hotels, crosswalks, markets and bathrooms all have some cute face staring at you. It’s kinda cute I guess.

And finally, not to be filed under cute, but rather uncomfortably realistic is this:

In most of the Chiang Mai temples, they have these pious (presumably wax, hopefully not stuffed) replicas of former holy men. It must be hard to be a monk and constantly feel watched by these simultaneously dead yet judging eyes.