Every year, in October, Phuket comes alive with the Vegetarian Festival. This however, is a slightly misleading title for what it actually involves.
It is a festival mainly for the Chinese community in Phuket, whereby they cleanse themselves (by only eating vegetarian food for 9 days) and invite the gods to descend upon them. Sounds good so far, right? What about fireworks and firecrackers? Still fun. Add in self mutilation by sticking a sword through your mouth. Hmm.
The idea is that some people (the cleanest people) are chosen by the gods to be inhabited by spirits and then self mutilate to shift evil from individuals onto themselves and bring the community good luck.
I managed to avoid the parades of self mutilating people in the street – though hit the traffic it caused a few times – but we did managed to make it to Phuket Town to see the lantern pole raising the night before the official opening. The entire street was closed off and full of food stalls selling vegetarian food to people wearing white clothing. Thank god we were told to wear white. We would have totally stood out otherwise!
After trying local vegetarian delicacies we found ourselves inside the grounds of the Chinese temple where everyone was congregating….we were the only white people. We stood and watched the firecracker house where it was a constant series of firecrackers going off – the louder it is the more it keeps the evil spirits away – then watched the 'chosen ones' who were inhabited by spirits come through the temple. These chose ones were out of it, rolling their eyes, wandering aimlessly, hitting themselves with rope and generally looking like they had overdosed on something.
Then we got stuck. All of a sudden everyone sat on the ground and watched while they performed some ritual I couldn't see. This went on for 20 mins and I thought my legs might fall off from being so numb. Finally everyone stood up and we tried to get out, but the crowd just turned in another direction and sat down again. 20 mins later I was over it, so we tried to make a break as soon as everyone stood up. But clearly we still had one more direction to chant towards! Argh!! By the time they stood up we just pushed through people to get to the exit! But this time it really was over, and those people possessed by spirits could bless you if you wanted. They looked and acted like they were possessed, but I'm not so sure…don't think the spirit leaves your body just so you can answer your mobile… But all up, such a cool night and festival!
(As I avoided the 'sticking a sword through my mouth' part of the festival, the photos at the end are from the local paper 'The Phuket News'. Please be aware they are GRAPHIC!)
