The Vegetarian Festival [Joshua Burke]

My mom heard of a festival called the vegetarian festival that was happening at a shrine down the street. We had to go see what it was all about. My mom looked up a schedule of what was going to happen in the next week or so, and we saw that the pole raising was tonight.  

The shrine 

We arrived early though, about half an hour before the pole raising actually started. So we went to go look at some nearby stands. Over near the food we saw some ruins behind the various stalls and stands, so we went to take a look. It ended up being a bunch of ruined buildings and here is what I found out about them. 

The various stalls and stands

Me on the remains 

The buildings belonged to governor Praya Jerm of Thalang. He moved Phuket's main town from Thalang to the Katu district where there were many tin mines. He got very wealthy from these mines, but when his Chinese workers rebelled he moved back to Thalang and built a fortress to protect himself. 

The passage way into the court building.

The court building.

The waiting hall.

This the the remains of the fortress. The hole in the back was for storing ammunition.

When it was time for the pole raising we headed over to the temple. There was a lot of people there, more then I have ever seen at the temple, and everyone was wearing white. I learned out why they were. There are ten rules of body cleansing to acquire supernatural powers during the festival. 

Abstain from eating meat products. 

Abstain from stealing 

Abstain from telling lies

Abstain from alcoholic drinks

Abstain from adultery

Abstain from gambling 

Abstain from wearing jewelry and wearing leather goods 

Abstain from mourning

Wearing white is preferable

Use dishes and utensils solely for the festival

Being raised 

There are people at the shrine who have undergone special rituals and believed that spirits are in them. These people were chanting around the pole as it was being raised and were scaring away demons. When raised, the pole allows the gods to come down from the heavens to earth.    

A couple nights later we went to the next big event down by the shrine. Tonight the believers are going to walk on fiery fire. I was super excited! It was not just some campfire, it was a mound of coals about 6 meters (18 feet) long. I learned that they walk on fire to gain purity and to overcome evil influence. It is also believed that only those that are not burned are truly cleansed.

On the last night of the festival we went to the south end of the island at Nai Yang Beach to see the farewell ritual that sends the gods back to heaven. Our schedule for the festival said that it would happen at 10 p.m., but it did not happen until midnight. While we waited at a nearby restaurant we set off the fireworks that we had bought a couple days before. The fireworks here are crazy cheap. We bought tons of fireworks here for the same price as a couple back in America. We had tons of fun setting them off. When the procession finally came by we were all completely exhausted and it was only a few cars and trucks. We headed home after they went by. 

The farewell ritual probably happened around 2 in the morning and here is how it goes. The believers cross a certain bridge that is supposed to cleanse them from the wrong actions that they have done over the year. After crossing a monk will stamp a red stamp of the nine emperors god's seal or the imperial seal on their back to complete the cleansing.  

Hope you have enjoyed this post! 

Thanks for reading 

Joshua