Don’t let the title mislead you! The Phuket Vegetarian Festival is, well, not entirely about vegetables! The festival is really more about the intense ritual of people piercing sharp, large objects through their mouths, cheeks or bodies as a symbol to honour animals. The Hindu Thai/Chinese Community practice this unique tradition in some parts of Thailand and Southeast Asia, as a tribute to animals.

 A colourful and lively festival, the Phuket Vegetarian Festival is held for nine days during October - the ninth month of the Lunar Calendar year. The participants abstain from meats, believing it will promote good health and peace of mind. Sounds good so far – right! 

 But the participants take it one step further. The ceremonies during this festival are to invoke the gods by having the devotees inflict pain on themselves. While under a trance-like state, many Hindu devotees, both men and women, will perform ritualised acts such as fire-walking and self-mortification, to note but a few daring and unimaginable acts, for their gods. Some other street events during the festival, are running across a bed of burning coal or climbing an eight-metre ladder of sharp blades while in the trance. The belief is that during this ‘mutilation’ and suffering, no harm will come to them as the Hindu gods will protect them.

With deer antlers, knives, skewers, umbrellas and well just about any household items, the devotees pierce their bodies and walk around the streets displaying their acts of worship for the nine days during the festivities. It’s also believed by undertaking these deeds, they serve as mediums to their gods.

 But the most agonizing of performances are always done inside or near the city temples. The volunteer devotees will perform mutilation upon themselves and on each other. They impale their cheeks, arms, face, legs and back by cutting and flipping over the skin when slashing limbs, chest, stomach and tongue with swords. This ritual is performed without anesthetic, and only iodine and petroleum jelly are used to help with the pain and infection.

During the nine days of the festivities, devotees need to commit to:

o   Avoid eating meat

o   Avoid sex

o   Avoid alcohol

o   Cleanliness of the body

o   Wearing white attire

o   Proper physical and mental behaviour

o   People in mourning cannot participate

o   Pregnant or menstruating women should not attend the ceremonies

 Read enough? 

And what is the purpose of this practice you ask? Well it is performed as a sign of worship, appreciation and respect to their gods and ancestors and as a display of devotion to their beliefs. It has been understood that the impact of the trance state on the devotees can last for days or weeks after the festival. The devotees appear remarkably calm and extremely focused.

Dekra Abdo

A self-confessed word-worm. My love for reading, writing and world cultures has taken me to many destinations. Let me hear your comments on my blog.