Congratulations “Miss Elephant of Bang Nam Phueng”

So it’s not all about the splashing. Samut Prakarn’s Phra Pradaeng district has hosted a unique beauty pageant to celebrate this year’s Songkran festival in which contestants were required to be transgender and weigh at least 120 kilograms.

This was the eleventh year that the authorities of Bang Nam Phueng district organised the contest for those ‘larger size’ entrants, but it was the first time that the stage was reserved for transgender contestants only.

Perhaps a little unkindly, the name of the contest is called “Miss Elephant of Bang Nam Phueng”.

The candidates were whittled down to 20 before the final round was held on Thursday evening. The winner of this year’s contest was 29 year old Napatcha Sermsenabun, while the first runner up was 29 year old Pumirapee Ungamonboon followed by 26 year old Piyakorn Sairat, 26 year old Chalitawan Laocharoen and 29 year old Natpacharaporn Wijittanuwat.

Samnao Rassamithat, chairman of Tambon Administration Organisation, said this was the only beauty contest of its kind in Thailand (we suspect the only contest of its kind in the world).

He asked people to wait for next year when all 11 previous winning beauty queens are expected to again enter the contest in a search for the most beautiful queen. Napatcha said that she was delighted to have won the award this year as she had participated in the contest for five consecutive years. Napatcha said she will show her parents the award as her childhood dream was now already fulfilled.