In every culture, toys are an important part of childhood, and Thailand is no exception. Many Thai toys are also beautiful handicrafts that are still made today just as they were centuries ago.

One example is the graceful mobile known in Thai as pla tappien, a popular souvenir with many tourists who visit the country. The fish that comprise the mobile are made of plaited dry palm leaves, often painted in bright colors; traditionally, the pla tappien is hung above a cradle so that a baby can watch it slowly turning in the breeze.

Then there are kites, which come in a vast variety of shapes and sizes and can be seen everywhere in the sky during the kite season from February to April. Actually, some Thai kites are considerably more than mere toys in both their size and the skill required to fly them. This is particularly true of those used in kite fighting, a sport thought to have been in existence since the Sukhothai period. It involves lofty battles between the five-pointed "male" kites, called chula--which may be up to six feet in diameter--and the smaller, diamond-shaped females, called pakpao. The kites have a framework of bamboo, carefully rounded and smoothed, covered with tough, handmade sa paper.

A delightful small toy in rural areas is the jakkajan, or cicada, made out of clay and bamboo. Tied with cotton to a bamboo handle, these make a shrill, chattering sound when whirled, exactly like that of a real cicada. Other highly realistic-looking insects are made of defly plaited strips of bamboo or palm leaf.