Vegetarian Festival - Phuket, Thailand

I spent the past weekend at the Vegetarian Festival on the southern island of Phuket, Thailand. This Taoist religious festival originated in China and was first performed in Kathu, a mining town in Phuket, by a Chinese opera company about 170 years ago. At that time, there was a deadly epidemic prevalent in the district and only the Chinese were able to fight it through their vegetarian diet (or so it was believed). From that point on, during the 9th Chinese lunar month, the Vegetarian Festival was born. Let's just say it took a turn and morphed into today’s face piercing, torturesque fireworks display!

On Friday after school, about 20-plus TCIS teachers headed to the airport and flew an hour and a half to Phuket City. We woke up to the MAYHEM of the Veggie Festival. It’s difficult to explain what a psychotic event it is! I've never seen anything even remotely as odd in all of my life!!! People looked possessed with umbrellas, household statues, swords, beads, four-foot long, one inch in diameter steel rods, and anything else you can imagine jammed through their faces!! There was thick, mucous-like blood dripping from their lips and they were walking on a parade route with a group of "supporters" dressed in all white. One guy chose a huge steel rod as his piercer of choice that was so large it required additional support from a friend who carried the front of it while the “medium” held on to his shoulders for support.

Apparently, the “mediums” have been chosen by one of the nine Chinese deities. If you are chosen, you must participate or it’s rumored that the deity will come after you and you’ll die an untimely death. Also, if you’ve committed blasphemy and participated without being chosen, the deity may leave you in the middle of the festival and you’ll be subjected to feeling the pain of the piercing or any other performance conducted to show the power of the gods, such as walking on coals or climbing barefoot on a stepladder with 72 rungs made of sharp iron blades.

After about thirty-minutes of person after person walking by grossly pierced, I literally started to gag and knew I had seen enough. Just then, the paraders in front of us began throwing huge packs of firecrackers into a statue of a Chinese deity supported on a plank that a group of six to eight people were carrying on their shoulders (I read later that the firecrackers are supposed to ward off evil spirits and bad luck). The pack of firecrackers would explode like gunfire and it was as close as I ever want to feel to being in a war zone. While the explosions were going off, I was taking pictures, of course, a bit in shock of what I was witnessing. The people holding the planks would bounce them up and down, looking like crazed lunatics. I started to get hit with the red firecracker casings and thought I should back up. I turned around to see Leah, on the phone with her mother, ducking into a travel agency to avoid the blasts and debris that was shooting into the crowd. Jenifer and Kellie were cowering in a corner near a storefront and I initially thought Jenifer was crying. Actually, I was feeling like I needed to either laugh or cry because it was absolute mayhem around us. I am far from understanding the spirituality behind the festival, so the whole thing was frightening to me.

Shortly thereafter, I looked at Leah and we decided we wanted to head to the beach and out of the city immediately. I had also been eyeing something red and about the diameter of a empty toilet paper roll, smoking on the ground directly in front of us. It looked like it was part of the firecracker packaging, but I wasn't sure and I thought it was time to get out of Phuket City before there were more explosions and somebody got hurt. We walked down the street and flagged a tuk-tuk who took us on a 45 minute drive to Karon Beach. We checked into an awesome resort, the Karon Princess Hotel, and lounged at the pool, reflecting and laughing hysterically at the craziness of the morning!

Just to fill you in on the reasons for this crazy festival, according to a woman standing next to us during the parade, the piercers have been preparing for ten days for this event. They have felt the spirit and have been so taken over, that they're able to sickly pierce themselves through the face without pain, although from what we saw, some of them were in pain. One guy had to sit down for a bit while his friends were pouring cold water on the gaping holes in his face where his sword was still jammed through. It was obvious that he was having some discomfort. I asked the woman if they went to the hospital afterwards to make sure the wounds wouldn't get infected and she said no, the spirits would take care of that. If they became ill or were infected, it was because the spirits were punishing them.

For the ten days leading up to the festival, the participants are to abstain from food and oil from animals and are required to follow these Ten Rules:
1. Cleanliness of body
2. Clean kitchen utensils and use them separately from other non-participants
3. Wear white
4. Behave physically and mentally
5. No meat eating
6. No sex
7. No alcoholic drinks
8. People in mourning should not attend
9. Pregnant women should not watch any rituals
10. Ladies with period should not attend the ritual

There were priests who are believed to protect the participants from bad luck throughout the year. They look possessed, as well, and walked through the parade shaking their head back and forth and stopping occasionally at the offering tables lining the streets and performing various blessings consisting of cracking a whip, sprinkling something at the crowd, and waving a flag over the heads of worshippers. It was very creepy and cult-like.

In case you're curious...who wouldn't be after that introduction?! Here are some General Sites about the Festival:
http://www.phukettourism.org/festival/vegetarian/
http://www.phuket.com/island/vegie.htm
http://www.hasekamp.net/vegetarian.htm

At the beach, Leah and I spent two days relaxing, laying at the pool, walking around town and shopping, and eating. We splurged and stayed in a $30/night hotel http://www.sawadee.com/phuket/karonprincess/details/ and treated outselves to a pedicure at a local salon.

It was nice to see the people employed and rebuilding their island after the tsunami just 10 months ago. I thought there would be more devastation, but was pleasantly surprised to see things appear back to normal. Here’s an interesting site of the day or two after the tsunami http://www.phuket-photos.com/frameme.php?page=phuket-tidal-wave.htm, but the town was almost completely cleaned up in only four days!

I’m hoping to get back to Phuket, as it was a beautiful place and very close to Bangkok. The round-trip flight was 3000 baht ($80) and only took an hour and half, so it’s doable over a weekend. I’d like to have more time to take a day trip over to Krabi and some of the islands in between to go diving and snorkeling…maybe next time when one or two of you are out to visit!