Even though you know what to expect, and even though you read about the whole thing before, nothing can prepare you for seeing the Phuket Vegetarian Festival with my own eyes.
It doesn’t matter if you think it’s real or not; when you’re there in the thick of the action, the Phuket Vegetarian is as real as any movie you’ve ever watched or any book you’ve ever read.
On Saturday night in 2007, we went to Jui Tui Shrine in Town for a birth-death god ceremony. The road was closed off and people will be milling about among the food stalls when the maa song (entranced horses) arrived. These were the people who become possessed by the gods during the Vegetarian Festival.
The maa song, both men and women, marched to the shrine with their entourage of white-clad followers. They were shaking their heads, some prancing, others dancing. Every now and then a piercing cackle would come from one of the possessed, and when they spoke, it was in a high-pitched voice.
Some of the women had babies’ dummies in their mouths or carried babies’ bottles (birth gods), while other gave candies to people as a form of blessing. The whole thing was totally surreal. The maa song made their way to the shrine and the gods exited their bodies.
Although this was all a bit strange, it was what we saw Sunday at Samkong Shrine that really weirded us out. The Phuket Vegetarian Festival is famed for the self-torturous acts the maa song perform while the gods watch over and protect them. The maa song are said to feel no pain and they perform these acts of self-harm to remove bad luck from the community. It gets gory from this point.
The maa song pierce their cheeks and faces with all manner of objects. We saw poles, wrenches, a steering wheel, blades, swords and vegetables piercing the cheeks of these guys. We don’t want to speculate about what this festival is because seeing these acts was extraordinary. The people involved don’t f-ck around.
The din of firecrackers and the smoke and pungent smell they produced added to the atmosphere.
What interested us most were the trance-like states these guys seem to be able to induce. From what we can tell, it’s a kind of self-hypnosis that allows them to perform these brutal acts without so much as flinching.
At one point, a group of men stood around in a circle and hit their own backs with axes and swords. You could see the wounds these blows made. The maa song paraded from Samkong Shrine to Phuket Town. That’s a long, long walk. We were riding through town about an hour later and we could still see maa song on their bare-foot journey.
The street processions through Phuket Town on Wednesday and Thursday are totally off the wall, with more than 1,000 maa song, including women.
One slightly sour point of the festival are the numerous promotional booths that brands like AIS and Nokia have set up at shrines. On Saturday, less than five minutes about the birth-death god ceremony, there was girls on mics promoting AIS at full volume.
The whole concept of bladed ladder climbing sounds so gruesome and you may be curious how such a feat could be achieved. Samkong Shrine is as good a place as any to watch the event, so one day in 2007 we headed there for day eight of the Phuket Vegetarian Festival. The show was scheduled to kick off and 8 pm.
We arrived on time and saw that a crowd of about 200 to 300 onlookers had gathered around a large structure that was about 30 feet high, with one bladed ladder leading up to a crow’s nest, and one back down to the ground.
This was the “ladder”, although it looked more like a prop from American Gladiators. I couldn’t get that thought out of my head as about 30 maa song (“entranced horses) arrived to the arena to take up the challenge.
The 30 possessed warriors prepared for battle with patches of fabric held in their mouths between their teeth. A string of firecrackers was lit and the resulting smoke filled their air as the maa song lined themselves up in single file.
Contenders, ready!
The climbing began with the first maa song making his way up the ladder. We were disappointed that only his feet came into contact with the bladed rungs. The first guy only touched every other rung and his climbing was slow and steady. The next maa song touched every rung, and with every step he rocked back and forth as if trying to shake the whole structure.
Each maa song had a different way of climbing the ladder. Some would run up it as fast they could, while others were more methodical in their climbing. When the maa song reached the crows nest, they took the pieces of orange fabric out of their mouths and threw them to the ground below.
Other maa song gave out pieces of string to people in the crowd. Sometimes we think that Thai people will wai anything that moves. There really was no significance to this string, but the people in the crowd received it as if it had come from Buddha himself.
One maa song came over and showed us his feet. While the whole thing did look painful, the rungs weren’t covered with blood as we had expected, and the whole thing felt more like a “show” than the other feats we’ve witnessed at the Vegetarian Festival.
Other shows during the week included walking on fire and bathing in hot oil. The real action, as it were, is to be found in the street processions.
The Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2008 will kick off in October for 10 days, with all manner of curious events scheduled to take place daily until Saturday October 20.
The Phuket Vegetarian Festival began in 1825 when Thalang Governor Praya Jerm moved Phuket’s primary town from Thalang to Kathu, an area filled with Thai and Chinese tin miners.
Phuket has a long history of tin mining, the remnants of which can be seen in tourist shops across the island. Scores of men had fallen ill with fever, and Phuket was covered with thick jungle. A Chinese opera company arrived in Phuket to perform for the miners.
Members of the company soon succumbed to the same illness as the miners, but through a strict diet of vegetarianism honoring two gods – Kiew Ong Tai The and Yok Ong Song Teh – the troop was able to recover its health, much to the astonishment of the locals.
The people of Kathu then embraced this ritualistic vegetarianism and the festival was born, taking place every year from the first to the ninth evening of the ninth lunar month.
On the afternoon before the festival begins, a pole at each temple is raised to invite the gods to descend. The festival opens with the hanging of nine lanterns on the pole at midnight to invite Kiew Ong Tai The and Yok Ong Song Teh back to the island.
Ceremonies take place throughout the festival in which devotees pray to the gods. Ma Song are those whom the gods enter, passing on supernatural powers to these people who then perform gruesome self-torturous acts to draw evil from others to themselves, thus cleansing the community and bringing it luck.
Those who follow the festival eat a strict vegetarian diet and refrain from all vices, including sex and alcohol. Devotees dress entirely in white for the duration.
There are 16 shrines at which ceremonies take place during the Phuket Vegetarian Festival. Those shrines are: Kathu, Jui Tui, Bang Neow, Ban Tha Rue, Sui Boon Tong, Lim Hu Tai Su, Cherng Talay, Yok Ke Keng, Sapam, Bangkoo, Jang Ong, Tae Gun Tai Tae, Sum Sae Su Hud, Kiu Tien Kiong and Gim Tsu Ong.
Eight of the shrines are located in Phuket Town, with the others scattered across the island. You’ll need to wake up early to see the street processions at the Phuket Vegetarian Festival, as they usually begin some time between 6:30 am and 8 am, with people marching through Phuket Town, Patong, Sapam Village and a couple of other areas.
Highlights at the various Chinese temples include bladed ladder climbing, bathing in hot oil and fire walking, as well as brutal acts of people piercing their own cheeks and tongues. It’s all real as well.
One year, a man used a pig’s tongue in his mouth to try and fool people, but he was arrested for impersonating a shamen. They don’t muck about at Phuket Vegetarian Festival.
We can’t wait for the festival this year. Word of advice: book your accommodation early as the island fills up with people pretty fast.
Our good friends at Tourism Authority of Thailand helped me out for this article.
After a weekend in Bangkok, we are straight back to Phuket. It’s amazing to see the difference in the bars and clubs in Phuket as compared with Bangkok. The Phuket nightlife scene has a lot to offer, but it still has a long way to go before it can compete with the bigger cities.
One of the things that we’re always happy about in Phuket is the fact that there are so many great restaurants. Although there isn’t as much street food as in Bangkok, there is still more than enough to keep us happy.
We’ll be going back to Bangkok again this weekend. Don’t get us wrong, we love Phuket, but sometimes you need to go shopping or party in a big way that you can’t usually do on the island. But still, it is nice to be back in Phuket, where everything is so much more calm than in the capital.
So this will be our first post on the Phuket Vogue blog. This is where we’ll keep you up to date with goings on with the website and around Phuket. Phuket Vogue was established in May 2008 in an attempt to bring together some decent information about Phuket.
At the time of writing, Phuket is gearing up for the low season, which means we’re getting rained on more than we’d like, but this is the beginning of the quiet season, so it’s cool to be around when there are so many tourists on the island.
The rain in Phuket can be a real downer because it is so hard and so heavy. We’re lucky here that the rain only comes in bursts, so half the time we’re drenched, and the other half, we’re working on our tans.
So anyway, welcome to Phuket Vogue. Hopefully this is the beginning of something special.
Ah, Keith Floyd. The only celebrity chef with the balls to seemingly tell it how it is. Floyd’s at Burasari opened to much fanfare in Phuket in 2007 and the restaurant has quickly established itself as one of the best places to eat on the island.
If you’re lucky enough, you might actually catch Floyd himself bumbling about the place interacting with guests or making sure the food is being prepared to his high standards. He recently made the decision to settle in Phuket, so he’s usually around.
Floyd’s is a good restaurant in Phuket that features some fantastic dishes, such as crispy duck leg, foie gras and lobster.
This restaurant in Patong is most well know for the Sunday brunch, which boasts everything from world cuisine to local oysters. Being a restaurant of a renowned wine lover, there is, understandably, a decent wine list. Dress up for the occasion if you’re heading out to Floyd’s. A recommended Phuket restaurant.
Ad: Bang Tao Beach, past Amora Hotel and turn left. Tel: 081-9705302. Web: www.babylonbeachclub.com VV
Few restaurants in Phuket can beat Babylon Beach Club in terms of ambience. Located right next to the sea at Bang Tao Beach, Babylon Beach Club offers great food in a real beach setting.
This Bang Tao restaurant has a kind of rustic feel to it, looking more like a beach hut than a restaurant. The menu contains a good variety of Western and Thai food. The Babylon Platter features shrimp cakes, spring rolls and satay — recommended.
The Thai food is delicious and there is also a tasty selection of desserts for afters. Babylon Beach Club is all about the location and is worth making the journey for. A lot of beachside restaurants in Phuket fall short because they’re too popular for their own good, generally marketed towards tourists. Babylon Beach Club is more popular with Phuket’s expat and local communities.
Ad: 48/5 Saiyuan Road, Village 7, Rawai. Tel: 076-289314. VV
There have been mixed reviews of Don’s Café over the years, but one thing is for certain: the guy makes a killer steak sauce. Don has built up a solid reputation for his Rawai restaurant, making it one of the more popular restaurants in Phuket among expats.
Most expats, after moving to Phuket, end up at Don’s Café within a few days to sample his spare ribs and famous barbecue. Don, a former NASA engineer, is usually milling about taking care of guests at his restaurant.
Don’s is perhaps one of the most famous expat restaurant in Phuket, certainly in Rawai. Don’s features a good range of Western dishes, Mexican food, pizzas, steaks and Swedish food.
It’s all about the smoked barbecue ribs, however, marinated in Don’s famous sauce, the recipe of which is a well-kept secret that very few people know.
On Sunday Don serves up a traditional English roast dinner.
Ad: Ground Floor, Index Living Mall, the bypass road, Phuket City. Tel: 076-249515. VV
There are surprisingly few sushi restaurants in Phuket, but if you’re looking for somewhere to eat Japanese food in Phuket, you can’t go wrong with the Oishi buffet. You pay for it, but what you get is free reign on pretty much every type of Japanese food you can imagine.
There is a fine range of sushi, sashimi, ramen and just about every form of Japanese food in between. Eat as much as you like and drink as much green tea as you can stomach.
A meal out at Oishi is a gluttonous affair, but it’s worth it if you’re a fan of sushi. Be wary that Oishi has been known to overcharge foreigners, so if you end up paying much more than 400 baht for your buffet, you could be paying over the odds.
Osihi is incredibly popular with everyone from locals to Korean tour groups, who seem to be herded in like cattle. The lunch-hour rush has to be seen to be believed.
Ad: Off Chaloem Kiat Rd, next to Index, Phuket City. Tel: 086-9463142. Ad: 120/6 Cherngtalay, Thalang. Tel: 081-6207429. VV
There are two Farang Restaurants in Phuket: one in Phuket City, next to the bypass road, and one in Cherng Talay. The food at both is almost identical, but the experience at the Cherng Talay restaurant is slightly superior.
Farang Restaurant is a long-time establishment founded by the former head chef of a five-star hotel. The menu features pasta dishes, pizza and some great meat dishes. The food is exceptional and, for the price, it’s a real shining light among places to eat in Phuket.
The pasta dishes are especially good, as is the beef sirloin. The presentation is really out of this world for such a small restaurant. Most of the dishes are fusion meals, with a few Thai offerings thrown in for a local touch. A rarity among Phuket eateries, the house wine is palatable, too.
Farang Restaurant can also lay claim to serving up the best brownies in Phuket, as well as a fantastic apple tart.
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Phuket Vogue is a resource dedicated to bringing you up-to-date information about restaurants and nightlife in Phuket. This website is constantly expanding to bring you the most vogue clubs and eateries on the island. Whether you want to party in Patong or dine out in Phuket City, we have the info for you. We love Phuket. Privacy policy
