Phuket Vegetarian Festival

Phuket Vegetarian Festival is a colourful and rather gruesome event held over a nine-day period in October, celebrating the Chinese community's belief that abstinence from meat and various stimulants during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar will help them obtain good health and peace of mind. Though the origin of the festival is unclear, it is commonly thought that the festival was brought to Phuket by a wandering Chinese opera group who fell ill with malaria while performing on the island. They decided to adhere to a strict vegetarian diet and prayed to the Nine Emperor Gods to ensure purification of mind and body. To everyone's amazement, the opera group made a complete recovery. Upon their recovery, people celebrated by holding a festival that was meant to honour the gods as well as express their happiness at surviving what was, in the 19th century, a fatal illness.

One of the most exciting aspects of the festival are the various (and sometimes gruesome) ceremonies which are held to invoke the gods. Firewalking, body piercing and other acts of self-mortification undertaken by participants, acting as mediums of the gods, have become more spectacular and daring as each year goes by. Men and women puncture their cheeks with various items, including knives, skewers and other household items. It is believed that the Chinese gods will protect such persons from harm, and little blood or scarring results from such mutilation acts. This is definitely not recommended for the faint hearted to witness. In 2011, some 74 people were injured with one death reported. Injuries are usually sustained from the indiscriminate use of firecrackers, so beware of this pitfall and stay well away from this deafening and sometimes frightening aspect of the festival.