A science professor stepped up to ruin the imagination and pride of villagers who thought they caught a baby Garuda, the legendary humanoid bird famous from Buddhist and Hindu folklore.
Photos of a poor furry creature spread online this week with word it was captured by a villager in Thailand who summoned the entire community to take look, sniff and squeeze the bird for lottery numbers because it is clearly a baby Garuda, the magical beastman that Vishnu/Narai used to ride around on.
Jessada Denduangboripan, a science lecturer of Chulalongkorn University, today sought to spoil the fun by telling the community that the creature is, in fact, just a bird. A crested serpent-eagle common to tropical Asian habitats, which makes it a pretty awesome bird.
Maybe she’s being too hasty, as the Garuda’s nemesis is the snake god Naga, and the crested serpent-eagle does eat snakes for food.
Either way it was an auspicious catch, as the Garuda is a symbol of nobility found in every bank logo and stamped on every government document, including Thai banknotes and official letters.
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