Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
VEGETARIAN FESTIVAL
Loud popping sounds similar to machine-gun fire fill the streets, the air is nearly opaque with grey-brown smoke
and men and women traipse along blocked-off city roads, their cheeks pierced with skewers and knives or, more
surprisingly, lamps and tree branches. Some of the flock have blood streaming down their fronts or open lashes
across their backs. No this isn't a war zone, this is the
Vegetarian Festival
, one of Phuket's most important fest-
ivals, centred in Phuket Town.
The festival, which takes place during the first nine days of the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar -
usually late September or October - celebrates the beginning of 'Taoist Lent', when devout Chinese abstain from
eating meat. But more obvious to the outsider are the daily processions winding their way through town with
floats of ornately dressed children and ladyboys
(gà·teu·i
, also spelt
kàthoey),
near armies of flag-bearing colour-
coordinated young people and, most noticeably, men and women engaged in outrageous acts of self-mortification.
Shopowners along Phuket's central streets set up altars in front of their shopfronts offering nine tiny cups of tea,
incense, fruit, firecrackers, candles and flowers to the nine emperor gods invoked by the festival.
Those participating as mediums bring the nine deities to earth by entering into a trance state, piercing their
cheeks with an impressive variety of objects, sawing their tongues or flagellating themselves with spiky metal
balls. Whatever form the self-flagellation takes, the mediums (primarily men) walk in procession, stopping at
shopfront altars, where they pick up the offered fruit. They also drink one of the nine cups of tea, grab some
flowers to stick in their waistbands or set strings of firecrackers alight. The shop owners and their families stand
by with their palms together in a
wâi
gesture, out of respect for these mediums who are temporarily possessed by
deities. Surreal and overwhelming hardly describes it.
In Phuket Town, the festival activities are centred around five Chinese temples, with the
Jui Tui temple
(Soi
Puthon;
6am-6pm)
on Th Ranong the most important, followed by
Bang Niew
OFFLINE MAP
GOOGLE MAP
(Th Ong Sim Phai; 6am-6pm) and
Sui Boon Tong
temples. There are also events at
temples in the nearby towns of
Kathu
(where the festival originated) and
Ban Tha Reua
. If you stop by the pro-
cession's starting point early enough in the morning, you may see a surprisingly professional, latex-glove-clad
crew piercing the devotee's cheeks - not for the faint-hearted. Other ceremonies occur throughout the festival at
the temples and can include firewalking and knife-ladder climbing. Beyond the headlining gore, fabulous veget-
arian food stalls line the side streets offering a perfect opportunity to sample cheap local treats and strike up inter-
esting conversations with the locals.
The TAT office (
Click here
) in Phuket prints a helpful schedule of events for the Vegetarian Festival each year.
The festival also takes place in Trang, Krabi and other southern Thai towns.
Oddly enough, there is no record of these sorts of acts of devotion associated with Taoist Lent in China. The
local Chinese claim the festival was started by a theatre troupe from China that stopped off in Kathu around 150
years ago. The story goes that the troupe was struck seriously ill because the members had failed to propitiate the
nine emperor gods of Taoism. The nine-day penance they performed included self-piercing, meditation and a
strict vegetarian diet.
For more info, visit
www.phuketvegetarian.com
.
Sleeping
Phuket Town is the cheapest place on the island to get some zzz's and is a treasure trove
of budget lodging. Head out to the beaches for more midrange and top-end options.
Ai Phuket Hostel
HOSTEL
$
