Phuket vegetarian festival culminates Sunday night

PHUKET -  This southern tourist island's nine-day vegetarian festival concludes on Sunday  with closing parades throughout the day and a final ceremony at night. 

On Sunday morning, images of Chinese deities representing “Nine Emperor Gods” were paraded for the blessings of the crowds who gathered to watch. Local residents set up altars to worship the deities. People who joined the processions as “spirit mediums” had stunning performances to show their loyalty and faith.

On Sunday night, a final ceremony will send the Nine Emperor Gods back to heaven.

The vegetarian festival is believed to have started in Krathu district of Phuket in 1825 when some members of a visiting Chinese opera troupe fell sick with what is believed to have been  malaria.  The rest of the troupe adhered to a strict vegetarian in homage to the Nine Emperor Gods, whom they believed to have the power to cure illness and grant good fortune, wealth and longevity.

The ill performers recovered and they continued the practice every year. It spread to other Chinese descendants living in many parts of the country.

During the vegetarian festival, Chinese shrines in Phuket organise extravagant parades of devotees who act as ma song, spiritual mediums. By tradition, they pierce sharp weapons linked to the Chinese deities, such as swords and spears, through their cheeks, earlobes or arms.

But some devotees go further, using more unusual objects like daggers, aluminium fencing,  a toy M16 gun, a guitar, a saw blade, or even a steel chain.

The devotees gather to bless the worshippers as they parade long the streets. It starts each morning from one or two Chinese shrines, with hundreds of devotees and thousands of followers taking part. During the procession, devotees may stop to perform a group blessing by pounding their backs or foreheads with an axe, or running a knife or a sword through their tongue.

From time to time they also dance on a sea of firecrackers lit by worshippers on the street. The devotees believe that the mutilation and their sacrifice will cleanse evil spirits from the community and bring good luck to the people.

Sunday's procession can be observed along many streets - including Phunphon, Rasada, Phuket, Montri and Kra roads, and will end near Saphan Hin Public Park.

The Tourism Authority of Thailand expects the vegetarian festival to attract about 140,000 tourists and generate more than 1.3 billion baht in local spending this year.

Believers parade deity images as firecrackers explode.(Photos: Achadthaya Chuenniran