Disputes over true origin of Naga fireballs continue while tourism booms

On October 30, Srettha expressed joy that the event was such a draw for the northeast. His government is boosting the soft power of local belief and tradition — and the Naga fireball festival could be included.

The disputes over the cause of the mysterious fireballs have dated back decades.

The controversies have previously prompted several people to try and disprove the supernatural power claimed to be related to the fireballs. As well, a movie was once made about the event, and a number of university graduate students have written theses about it.

The once-popular iTV channel attempted to argue that the fireballs were caused by humans and not by serpent-like mysterious Naga beings as local people believe, or by the gravitational pull of the moon drawing methane gas from the river bed as some scientists postulate.

Of course, the TV…