Phuket gears up for the annual vegetarian festival

The celebration of Phuket Vegetarian festival in the town of Kathu


Celebrated by the Chinese community on the island that's best known for its palm-fringed beaches, stylish resorts and laid-back attitude, the annual Vegetarian Festival showcases Phuket's mystic side.

A combination of vegetarian food, peaceful chants, ear-splitting firecrackers and mind-blowing processions, visitors to the island should make a point of heading into town to see a very different side to the Pearl of the Andaman.

The Vegetarian Festival, which runs from Thursday through October 19, has been an annual event merit-making for more than 150 years.

It is believed to have started in the town of Kathu by a visiting theatre troupe from China. Struck down by a mysterious epidemic, the entertainers decided they had fallen ill because they had failed to pay proper respects to the nine Emperor Gods of Taoism.

As penance they erected Chinese temples and held a vegetarian festival to ward off any residual bad luck. According to local legend, the unorthodox remedy worked and the annual vegetarian festival has been held ever since. Abstention from sex and alcohol were added in later years for absolute purification.

From next Thursday, the whole town will fly the yellow flags to mark the beginning of the spiritual retreat.

On the eve of the festival, a large pole is raised in each temple, and the nine emperor gods are invited to descend from the heavens and take part in the ceremonies. At midnight, nine lanterns are lit and hung on the poles, meaning that the annual Vegetarian Festival has begun.

Food stalls fly yellow little flags to indicate they serve only vegetarian food and devotees dress in white for the entire nine days to show they intend to remain pure. While vegetarian food is tempting and the Chinese shrines are gaily decorated, most visitors focus on the maa song or the mediums the gods enter during the festival.

The maa song manifest supernatural powers and perform self-mutilation so they can absorb evil from other individuals and ensure good luck for the entire community.

Each morning begins with processions through the town. At dawn, one can find scores of young men thronging the inner sanctums of the temples, preparing themselves for self-mutilation.

At the base of the shrines, they go into a trance, begin speaking in tones and don colourful aprons with Taoist symbols, looking on as doctors make cuts at both sides of their mouths.

The festival culminates with a procession of people deep in a trance, piercing their tongues, cheeks and other parts of their anatomy with spears, daggers, sharpened branches and anything else that comes to hand. Possessed by the spirits of nine deities, these ascetic devotees apparently feel no pain and show little sign of real injury.
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