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Vegetarian Festival -
Piercing Extreme
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Vegetarian Festival Phuket
You can
find the story on the
Vegetarian Festival in Phuket Thailand also in our
e-book on southern Thailand with unbelievable,
photos an pictures in large format, a video about
the festival,
here.
Every
year on the first day of the ninth month of the
Chinese lunar calendar - normally in late September
or the beginning of October the bizarre vegetarian
festival is started in Phuket, Trang, Krabi, Takua
Pa, Satun and Ranong province.
The actual vegetarian festival in Phuket
where the action is on are Bang Niaw and the Jui Tui
Chinese Temple, it centers mainly around Phuket Town
and last from the first to the ninth day of the
ninth lunar month.
The festival is especially bizarre
considering what kind of materials the devotees
(called -the soldier of god) push through their skin
on different parts of the body, primarily around the
mouth region. The festival rather looks like a
gathering of masochists.
The Taoist Celebration of the vegetarian festival
in Phuket is done in all Chinese temples in
Phuket and also is celebrated by Thais who are not
necessarily of Chinese origin or within the Taoist
philosophy.
At that time many
Chinese migrated to Phuket to work in the newly discovered tin
mines and they brought a Chinese drama group with them. Many |
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of the
group turned vegetarian in the hope to immunize them from malaria
some of them contracted.
The festivities in Phuket are held around some Chinese
temples on Phuket, like the Bang Niaw and the Jui Tui Chinese
Temple.
Bang Niaw Chinese Temple during vegetarian festival Phuket
Thailand
 
The deities are carried around by spectacular and very noisy
processions
With the time the custom to pierce the body and face and walk
barefoot over hot charcoal came into the festival.
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Vegetarian
Festival Phuket - head piercing extreme |
Vegetarian
Festival Phuket - some swords in the mouth |
Vegetarian
Festival Phuket - barbed wire f
ashion |
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Vegetarian
Festival Phuket - umbrella
piercing the mouth |
Some of the piercing actors at the vegetarian festival in
Phuket
are supposed to act as a mediums between deities and the
earth.
They try to achieve a special state of out of mind.
Once it is reached, their body is pierced by all
kind of objects objects as shown above, such as knifes
needles, barbed wires, bamboo poles, umbrellas ect.
The peculiar thing is, they put all this objects through the
skin and wont bleed most of the time which is strange
indeed.
The ten basics during the Thailand
vegetarian festival are:
1. Total
cleanliness of the body.
2. Clean kitchen utensils and use them separately from other
who do not join the festival.
3. Wear white cloth.
4. Behave in a good way, physically and mentally.
5. Don't eat meat.
6. No sex.
7. No alcohol.
8. People at mourning should not attend the festival
9. Pregnant ladies should not watch any ritual.
10. Ladies with menstruation should not attend the festival. |
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A
Vegetarian festival pierced medium - Phuket Thailand |
Vegetarian festival mediums are plenty and march in
a very long procession on some Phuket main streets.
The mediums pick up some offerings from shops who
sometimes places altars in front to the road.
The shop owners think it is a sign of good luck and
blessing if one the mediums take their gifts during
the vegetarian festival procession.
Here is the video |
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Phuket -
Thailand’s Vegetarian Festival
First time visitors
to Thailand at the start of October might be puzzled by
the myriad of eye-catching bright yellow signs displayed on the road.
It simply means the Vegetarian Festival is on.
 
Heavy mouth piercing during the Vegetarian Festival
Heavy tongue piercing during the Vegetarian Festival
This unique Thai vegetarian festival had its origins on the
southern island of Phuket some 180 years ago and has gradually
spread to virtually all parts of Thailand. The vegetarian Festival
is of Chinese origin and not Thai created. It
began among the Chinese immigrants who had flocked to Phuket in the
early 19th Century to work in the tin mines. According to local historians, about the year
1825, malaria struck the Chinese miners and some artist from a
Chinese theater group started the vegetarian trend in the hope to
get away with malaria, they were not very successful but myths never
vanish.
Now each year on that
anniversary the vegetarian festival is on and Chinese people on
Phuket island practice a period of
cleansing by adopting a vegetarian diet. Offerings to the Chinese
divinities would naturally be made and a strict code of conduct
would be followed, which included sexual abstinence and foregoing
the consumption of alcohol. As the years went by, something bizarre
also took place. Individuals spontaneously began to be “possessed by
spirits” during the festival and would take to impaling themselves
with sharp object or slashing themselves with razor sharp knives.
Yet once the spirit had left them, there would be no visible wounds
or even the slightest scars. This Hindu like self-mutilation
naturally drew Thai tourists to the island, and these Thais carried
the idea of a vegetarian festival back to their home provinces.
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Vegetarian Festival Phuket - strange items mouth piercing |
Vegetarian
Festival Phuket - large needles piercing the mouth |
Vegetarian
Festival Phuket - variants of piercing the body |
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Nowadays, the Vegetarian Festival is
on in almost every bigger city in Thailand. The yellow signs on the
road bear a Chinese character in red and the Thai word “jeh” next to it, mean vegetarian. Any vendor displaying
the signs sell flesh free food and the restaurants serve only meatless
dishes. |
In Bangkok, the Vegetarian Festival is best seen in Yaowarat or
Bangkok Chinatown. It begins on the first day
of the 9th month of the Chinese lunar calendar with action similar
to those at Phuket. People in Chinatown already have started buying vegetarian meat substitutes,
mainly high protein soy bean products, during the vegetarian
festival meat sales drop by around 70 percent during the ten days of
the festival.
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Vegetarian Festival Phuket - piercing the tongue with
umbrella |
Vegetarian Festival Phuket - strange object piercing the
mouth |
Vegetarian Festival Phuket - piercing the
Cheek |
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Vegetarian Festival Phuket - mouth piercing with needles |
Vegetarian Festival Phuket - tongue piercing with needles |
Vegetarian Festival Phuket - piercing the Cheek |
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Vegetarian Festival Phuket - carry the Chinese deity |
Vegetarian Festival Phuket - deities action and fire cracker |
Vegetarian Festival Phuket - action and fire cracker |
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But the festival is not merely limited to Chinatown or the
Chinese-Thais. Many Thais and foreigners welcome
the change to a vegetarian diet, and perhaps one restaurant in five
will offer vegetarian dishes only. In fact, some tourists have been known to
plan their visits to Thailand during the vegetarian festival.
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The vegetarian food offered during the Festival
is delightful. All of the Thai favorites are available, but with a
slight variation. Instead of tom yam gung (shrimp soup), there is tom yam jeh (vegetable soup). Gaeng matsaman, a delicious southern Thai curry made with chicken,
potatoes, onions and peanuts will have the chicken replaced
by tofu. Gaeng kiao wan, a mild green curry usually made with
chicken or fish, will now be made with soya. Mushrooms of all
types will be used, and the big yellow Japanese soba
noodles are used to produce a version of kweitiou pat Thai (noodles
fried Thai style).
Thailand’s Vegetarian Festival is probably one of
the best times to visit the country if you are not a beachcomber, even though it does fall within
the rainy season. Just take an umbrella with you. The food offered at this time of year
is as good as
any cuisine that Asia has to offer.
So next time you come to Thailand during vegetarian festival time, look for those yellow
signs. If it is not that time of year, just tell your waiter you
want to try the aharn jeh, the dishes on the
vegetarian
menu. Most restaurants will have one. It's a
healthy diet and a break from the usual
meat heavy diet that is so common in the west.
Thai vegetarian food is delicious. Try it and
see if you don’t agree. Visit
http://www.foodinthai.com
where you will be introduced to the origins and types of Thai food,
Thai cooking, courses and Cooking Schools in Thailand.
Author John Turner lives in Bangkok and runs the above indicated
website
which is a journal where he hopes to capture some of the rare and
very special moments he has experienced during the time he has spent
in Thailand
Also
check
-videos-.
The natural extension is to download our unique e-book on southern
Thailand where you will find much more content and a lot of exiting
full scale pictures. You can have a look on the screen and if you
like you can print all content on any desktop printer, ...more
e-book
|
The natural extension is
to download our unique e-book on
southern Thailand where you will find much more content and a lot of
exiting full scale pictures. You can have a look on the screen and if
you like you can print all content on any desktop printer, ...more
e-book |
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for you |
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| Vegetarian Festival -
Piercing Extreme
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Vegetarian festival Phuket
Thailand, walk on fire,
Chinese temple, Phuket, Bang Niaw Chinese temple, Jui Tui
Chinese Temple,
body
piercing, tattooing, razor
blade climber, Taoist
Celebration, vegetarian
festival Thailand,
Chinese
temples, Phuket,
celebration, Chinese origin,
Taoist philosophy |
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