Vegetarian

Hi again,

While you were all fast alseep Saturday morning(or still out!) Matt and I took a long (in time, distance only 10km), overcrowded local bus (well, sort of a bus) to Phuket town at 7am. Given that we're at school all week, and neither of us are exactly morning people as I'm sure many of you know, there must have been a pretty compelling reason for this. This reason came in the form of a procession for the Vegetarian Festival here. If you're in a hurry or not interested in the details, just scroll down to the photos!

The Vegetarian Festival is a 9-day annual event celebrated by the population of Chinese descent here in Phuket (and some neighbouring provinces). It originated in the mid 19th century whan a troupe of theatre players fell ill (probably with malaria) but were miraculously cured by sticking to a strict vegetarian diet in honour of 2 emperor gods Kiew Ong Tai Teh and Yok Ong Sone Teh. When the locals heard of this, the were amazed and so the festival began: it is thought to bring good luck to indivduals and the community. The festival involves daily procession and various forms of mortification (which have got more extreme with time apparently).

In any case we can vouch for the fact it is pretty extreme these days. The procession we saw involved many people with their cheeks and faces pierced, as well as people in trances and their entourage. You can see in the pictures that the entourage and many spectators are wearing either all white (as is custom) or white and yellow. Yellow is the colour of the king here and yellow shirts are worn by most of the population once a week to
show their respect (this isn't forced or fake, they truly respect and care for their royal family, who seem to deserve it actually!). Here go the (quite disturbing) photos - try to imagine hundreds of people trickling by, many pierced, as well as loud fire crackers going off every few seconds..

By the way, these aren't even the most extreme, and we didn't even see the firewalking or the climbing of ladder of blades!
Below is a photo of a mini makeshift shrine. Many locals set these up along the procession in front of their homes and shops. They include fruit, sweets and nine small cups of tea. These are either for the pierced people or people in trances to have for themselves or to bless and give back (I got a blessed sweet!)..

After having our fill of extreme piercing we went to do some more tame touristy things! Details in next entry!!!!!!!!!

xxx meli and matt