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The Origin of Thunder and Lightning

In the time when natural phenomena were explained with myths, the Thai people believed that thunder and lightning occurred because of the heavenly romantic conflict between Mekla – the goddess of lightning – and Ramasura, the god of thunder.

There are quite a few variants to the basic legend, but one has it that Mekla is the goddess who looks after the terrestrial waters, and is the possessor of a magic crystal ball. Because of her celestial charm and the power of her crystal ball, the demon Ramasura, always armed with his powerful diamond axe, became infatuated with her, and chased her - but always at a distance - through the heavens. Enraged to be thwarted by this elusiveness, he threw his axe at her, and when it missed, the concussion of its fall naturally made the heavens echo. The flash of lightning - was that the product of Mekla's magic or also the fall of the axe? - was so strong it temporarily blinded the pursuer.

Another variant of this story involves Indra, the King of the Gods, Ramasura and his demonic friend Rahu, the lunar eclipse. Because Rahu - in most of the legends he's a baddie - stole the miraculous waters of immortality, his body was cut in half, and he persuaded his buddy Ramasura to go to mighty Indra to gain his support in the quest for recovery. However, when you're courting the help of the powerful, it's not a bad idea to take a present along, and as Mekla had somehow become the possessor of Indra's crystal ball (it seems she too had a slightly dodgy background), Ramasura thought that getting the ball back would be a good start to winning Indra's assistance. Here too the story is that he pursued Mekla high and low throughout the heavens, but that she succeeded in eluding him by her skilful use of the crystal ball. And once again, thunder and lightning was the result - coming respectively from the clash of the falling axe and the flash of the celestial ball.

There is of course no end to this story of demonic pursuit and feminine elusiveness. It may be that when you hear thunder and see the flash of the lightning, you think of the forces of nature - and nothing beyond that. But while we Thais aren't entirely indifferent to the facts of meteorology, we also like to indulge ourselves in remembering the legends we've heard since we were children. That's why at this time of the year, when the seasons are changing, and the clouds of cumulus are massing on the southern horizon in all their majestic glory, we see and hear the evidence that Ramasura is still blindly chasing the divine maiden Mekla as she leads him on in their merry dance. Will the demon catch the maiden this time, our children may ask us anxiously.

Well, we tell them, the answer's in the sky.