Published on The Brunei Times (http://www.bt.com.bn/en)
Phuket vegetarian festival in full swing
Leaner diet: Meatless fare is offered at Phuket's Taoist nine-day vegetarian or vegan diet for spiritual cleansing and merit-making while festival activities are centred around Chinese temples. Picture: Liz Price
Sunday, October 5, 2008
THE Phuket Vegetarian Festival is an annual event held during the first nine days of the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar. This normally is late September to October. In 2008 it runs from September 29 to October 7.
The festival celebrates the beginning of the Taoist "lent" when devout Chinese abstain from eating all meat and meat products. This nine-day vegetarian or vegan diet is for spiritual cleansing and merit-making. It is believed that the vegetarian festival and its accompanying sacred rituals bestow good fortune upon those who religiously observe this rite.
The population of Phuket is made up of about 35 per cent of Thai Muslims, 35 per cent Chinese and the rest are Buddhists, sea gypsies etc. The Chinese are mostly from the Hokkien region of China.
In Phuket the festival activities are centred around five Chinese temples, with the Jui Tui temple on Th Ranong the most important, followed by Bang Niaw and Sui Boon Tong temples in Phuket town.
Events are also celebrated at temples in the nearby towns such as Kathu where the festival originated, as well as in other southern Thai towns such as Trang and Krabi.
I was staying near the Jui Tui temple and so was able to get caught up with the activities.
The streets around the temple are mostly closed to traffic, and are decorated with yellow flags. Hundreds of stalls selling vegetarian foods are set up even before the festival starts. It is a food paradise. All the stalls fly yellow flags with red writing to symbolise the food is vegetarian, and restaurants do the same.
Many of the dishes are made to look like meat products, but no animals were slaughtered for this event. Even the milk drinks are made from soya rather than animal milk.
On the first day, the temples have the Lantern Pole Raising, and propitiation to the Jade Emperor and Nine Emperor Gods. On the following days people flock to the shrines to worship the gods. Sedan chairs are lined up in front of the shrines, where the spirits of the Nine Emperor Gods are believed to be seated. There is constant chanting for the first couple of days.
Everyone is expected to wear white, and there are dozens of shops and stalls cashing in by selling these white garments. The streets and temples turn into a sea of white and yellow.
Fortunately I remembered to take my earplugs, to make the noise of the fire crackers more bearable. Each temple has a special burning place where these deafening crackers are let off by a man from the temple.
But an added noise nowadays are the cheap crackers from China which are sold by the boxful to kids, who take great delight in throwing these on the ground to make them explode. I was quite wary of these, never knowing where they were going to detonate, and occasionally the safety officers would caution the kids.
As well as abstention from meat, the Vegetarian Festival involves various processions, temple offerings and cultural performances. Shop owners set up altars in front of their shops offering nine tiny cups of tea, incense, fruit, candles and flowers to the nine emperor gods invoked by the festival.
Those participating as mediums bring the nine deities to earth for the festival by entering into a trance state. These entranced devotees are known as "mah song" and go through incredible acts of self-mortification. They pierce their cheeks with all manners of objects, such as sharpened tree branches with leaves still attached, spears, garden shears, slide trombones, daggers. Some even hack their tongues continuously with saw or axe blades.
They are accompanied by a team to watch over them. It is believed that while possessed, the mah song will not feel any pain. They can also be seen shaking their heads back and forth continually, and usually seem oblivious to their surroundings.
During the street processions these medium stop at shopfront altars, where they pick up the offered fruit and either add it to the objects piercing their cheeks or pass it onto bystanders as a blessing. They also drink one of the nine cups of tea and grab some flowers to stick in their waistbands. The shopkeepers and their family stand by with their hands together in a wai gesture, out of respect for the mediums and the deities by whom they are temporarily possessed.
Towards the end of the festival there are displays such as walking barefooted over hot coals and ascending ladders with bladed rungs by the entranced devotees. It's hard not to get caught up in this atmosphere of religious frenzy, although the deafening firecrackers do get a bit unbearable.
There is no record of this kind of festival associated with Taoist Lent in China. Hence, some historians assume the Chinese in southern Thailand were influenced by the Hindu festival of Thaipusam in neighbouring Malaysia, which features similar acts of self-mortification. The local Chinese, however, claim that the festival was started by a theatre troupe from China that stopped off in nearby Kathu around 150 years ago. The story goes that the troupe was struck seriously ill because the members had failed to propitiate the nine emperor gods of Taoism. The nine day penance they performed included self-piercing, meditation and a strict vegetarian diet.The Brunei Times
The festival celebrates the beginning of the Taoist "lent" when devout Chinese abstain from eating all meat and meat products. This nine-day vegetarian or vegan diet is for spiritual cleansing and merit-making. It is believed that the vegetarian festival and its accompanying sacred rituals bestow good fortune upon those who religiously observe this rite.
The population of Phuket is made up of about 35 per cent of Thai Muslims, 35 per cent Chinese and the rest are Buddhists, sea gypsies etc. The Chinese are mostly from the Hokkien region of China.
In Phuket the festival activities are centred around five Chinese temples, with the Jui Tui temple on Th Ranong the most important, followed by Bang Niaw and Sui Boon Tong temples in Phuket town.
Events are also celebrated at temples in the nearby towns such as Kathu where the festival originated, as well as in other southern Thai towns such as Trang and Krabi.
I was staying near the Jui Tui temple and so was able to get caught up with the activities.
The streets around the temple are mostly closed to traffic, and are decorated with yellow flags. Hundreds of stalls selling vegetarian foods are set up even before the festival starts. It is a food paradise. All the stalls fly yellow flags with red writing to symbolise the food is vegetarian, and restaurants do the same.
Many of the dishes are made to look like meat products, but no animals were slaughtered for this event. Even the milk drinks are made from soya rather than animal milk.
On the first day, the temples have the Lantern Pole Raising, and propitiation to the Jade Emperor and Nine Emperor Gods. On the following days people flock to the shrines to worship the gods. Sedan chairs are lined up in front of the shrines, where the spirits of the Nine Emperor Gods are believed to be seated. There is constant chanting for the first couple of days.
Everyone is expected to wear white, and there are dozens of shops and stalls cashing in by selling these white garments. The streets and temples turn into a sea of white and yellow.
Fortunately I remembered to take my earplugs, to make the noise of the fire crackers more bearable. Each temple has a special burning place where these deafening crackers are let off by a man from the temple.
But an added noise nowadays are the cheap crackers from China which are sold by the boxful to kids, who take great delight in throwing these on the ground to make them explode. I was quite wary of these, never knowing where they were going to detonate, and occasionally the safety officers would caution the kids.
As well as abstention from meat, the Vegetarian Festival involves various processions, temple offerings and cultural performances. Shop owners set up altars in front of their shops offering nine tiny cups of tea, incense, fruit, candles and flowers to the nine emperor gods invoked by the festival.
Those participating as mediums bring the nine deities to earth for the festival by entering into a trance state. These entranced devotees are known as "mah song" and go through incredible acts of self-mortification. They pierce their cheeks with all manners of objects, such as sharpened tree branches with leaves still attached, spears, garden shears, slide trombones, daggers. Some even hack their tongues continuously with saw or axe blades.
They are accompanied by a team to watch over them. It is believed that while possessed, the mah song will not feel any pain. They can also be seen shaking their heads back and forth continually, and usually seem oblivious to their surroundings.
During the street processions these medium stop at shopfront altars, where they pick up the offered fruit and either add it to the objects piercing their cheeks or pass it onto bystanders as a blessing. They also drink one of the nine cups of tea and grab some flowers to stick in their waistbands. The shopkeepers and their family stand by with their hands together in a wai gesture, out of respect for the mediums and the deities by whom they are temporarily possessed.
Towards the end of the festival there are displays such as walking barefooted over hot coals and ascending ladders with bladed rungs by the entranced devotees. It's hard not to get caught up in this atmosphere of religious frenzy, although the deafening firecrackers do get a bit unbearable.
There is no record of this kind of festival associated with Taoist Lent in China. Hence, some historians assume the Chinese in southern Thailand were influenced by the Hindu festival of Thaipusam in neighbouring Malaysia, which features similar acts of self-mortification. The local Chinese, however, claim that the festival was started by a theatre troupe from China that stopped off in nearby Kathu around 150 years ago. The story goes that the troupe was struck seriously ill because the members had failed to propitiate the nine emperor gods of Taoism. The nine day penance they performed included self-piercing, meditation and a strict vegetarian diet.The Brunei Times
good write up. no photos ?
ReplyDeleteI sent several photos but they only published one of a drinks stall! I will have to publish some on a Multiply album.
ReplyDelete