Naga Fireballs of the Mekong and the 2002 iTV Controversy

Every year, around Wan Ok Phansa, the full moon that marks the end of Buddhist Lent, crowds gather along the Mekong River. The festival usually falls in October. Sightings stretch across roughly 250 km of the river, centred on Phon Phisai in Nong Khai province, with Laos on the opposite bank. Local belief is clear. The fireballs come from the Phaya Nak, a giant serpent living in the riverbed. It launches them to greet the Buddha's return from heaven at the end of Lent.

Witnesses describe glowing, reddish balls. Some are small sparkles. Some are the size of basketballs. They quickly rise up to a couple of hundred metres. Then they are gone. One account describes "little fireballs that silently rise up out of the river, burning red in colour." Counts run from tens to thousands in a single night. Kohmen Phoh, 93, a village elder of Ban Nong Khiate, had seen them since childhood. "It happens naturally and no one stages the event."

The crowds are enormous. AFP counted at least 200,000 people in 2002, bringing about 200 million baht to the area. That October a new film opened, Mekhong Full Moon Party by Jira Maligool. In it, monks plant timed fireworks or clay eggs underwater. According to AFP, the film doubled the crowds.

Autumn 2002. The iTV investigative programme Thot Rahat, known in English as "Code Crackers", filmed from the Lao bank opposite Phon Phisai. The footage showed Laotian soldiers firing tracer rounds into the air. Each shot drew cheers from the Thai side. TIME summed up the claim as "AK-47 tracer rounds fired by bored Lao soldiers on the opposite bank."

Nong Khai answered in anger. Thousands of residents protested. "The report suggests we are either a bunch of deceivers or gullible people fooled by Laotian soldiers," one protest leader told AFP. Local politicians threatened to sue iTV for more than $23 million. A tourism spokeswoman worried about the next season, "because Thai people always trust media reports."

Across the river, the Lao ambassador to Thailand, Hiem Phommachanh, said Laos was "shocked" by the allegation. "Proving such a phenomenon requires scientific methods with modern equipment," he said, adding that Laos had no budget to investigate. The Lao Department of Information set up a task force for the Pakkading area. No published result has been found.

In 2003 the Thai Ministry of Science and Technology sent a team led by deputy permanent secretary Saksit Tridech. It analysed soil and water samples and proposed that monsoon floods trigger a biogeochemical process. Tridech said more research was needed. Another account links the ministry's work to phosphine gas. Dr Manas Kanoksin had earlier suggested methane igniting under an alignment of the sun, moon and Earth. Brian Dunning of Skeptoid rejected gas bubbles outright, arguing they lack the mass to reach such speeds. His verdict was fireworks, shot up as a tourist attraction.

After analysing footage, biologist Jessada Denduangboripant of Chulalongkorn University concluded the lights were flares fired from the Lao bank. In 2021 he blamed tracers fired by "mischievous Lao villagers". That same year, under a COVID curfew, Lao officials said it was "extremely unlikely that anyone could have fired weapons or flare ammunition without our knowledge on that night."

The faithful never left. A former iTV newsman said in 2021 that they would not reopen the subject. Everyone has the right to believe, they said, as long as it does not harm society. In 2024 the government of Paetongtarn Shinawatra promoted the fireballs as Thai "soft power", and the prime minister attended the event. The river still draws its crowds. Over 200,000 people came on 29 October 2023.