PHUKET: I've been to Phuket before, back in late 2004 just before the tsunami hit. To be honest, all I did was lie by the pool, sip cocktails and stroll along the beach at Patong.
I didn't much like the heat, the tuk-tuk drivers hassling me every time I left my hotel, and I certainly didn't like walking down Soi Bangla in the evening.
I never headed into Phuket Town, nor did I explore the rest of the island.
So I certainly can't say my first trip to Phuket was culturally, educationally or emotionally challenging.
But now I'm back on Phuket, 11 years later, to complete a journalism internship at Phuketwan.
The editor says that I'm lucky enough to be here to cover the annual Vegetarian Festival. Ummmm, right . . . Sure. Lucky me.
Vegetarian Festival? Are you serious?
How interesting can a festival for vegetarians be?
But, wow! What can I say?
The festival has just started and I am experiencing ''vegetarianism'' in ways I never imagined, and perhaps, never want to imagine again.
No vegetarian I ever met in Australia was into self-mortification, facial piercing with swords, metal skewers and bamboo poles.
Most are also probably reluctant to walk over burning coals or climb bladed ladders. But that's what's happening here in Phuket at the moment.
Phuket's Vegetarian Festival is a spiritual and physical event that devotees believe will strengthen and enhance not only their future good luck, but that of their community.
A few days ago, I watched the lantern raising ritual at Jui Tui Shrine. Well, actually, a few thousand people and I squashed into the forecourt at the shrine like sardines, melted, sweated and watched the hour-long ritual together.
As warriors dressed in colorful costumes of brilliant red, yellow and green, many brandishing axes or swords, swayed and chanted, eyes rolled back in a trance, the crowd continued to swell and wait patiently.
As the 40 meter ritual pole, gilded gold with paper, symbolising the presence of the of the nine gods, was raised by hand, the crowd roared and firecrackers exploded, enveloping the shrine in eye-watering smoke.
Leaving the shrine, I threaded my way past hundreds of small stalls selling vegetarian food to devotees dressed in all-white clothing.
For the next nine days, devotees are forbidden to gamble, smoke, drink alcohol, wear jewelry or leather goods and must eat only vegetarian meals.
Later that night, I headed to the beachside Kiew Tien Keng Shrine, to witness a ritual that welcomes the gods to the Vegetarian Festival.
This time I was a little better prepared.
When the firecrackers exploded unexpectedly around my feet, I whipped out my safety glasses and quickly pushed in my earplugs.
Even then, I couldn't stop myself flinching and ducking as fireworks whistled, blasted and burst directly over my head.
As the parade of flag-waving warriors weaved their way down the street, devotees carried elaborate ceremonial carts from many different Phuket shrines onto the beach.
Gathered closely together in the darkness and drizzling rain, hundreds of warriors swayed slowly side by side as they watched their leader throw a pair of wooden kidney-shaped divining blocks to determine if the gods had descended from heaven and arrived at the shrine.
Having successfully arrived in Phuket, the Gods spirits reside in a special incense urn that is placed in seclusion and guarded closely for the duration of the festival.
When the ritual finished, the procession quickly left the beach to return to their shrines.
As I made my way back to my car, crowds of young people dressed in white continued to smoke, laugh and launch random fireworks from the adjacent park.
Other young men on motorcycles sped down the emptying streets, popping wheelies and throwing firecrackers at passing cars.
But perhaps the highlight of the festival to date, if I can call it that, was the first street procession that I went to on Wednesday at Choor Su Gong Naka Shrine, in Phuket Town.
Although this procession was small, perhaps with only a few hundred devotees, I certainly managed to see all the serious gut-wrenching, facial piercing that my morbid curiosity ever thought I needed to see.
With eyes rolled, the warriors swayed back and forth in a steady rhythm as they waited in the sun for the parade to start.
Friends hovering nearby gently poured water into damaged mouths and wiped leaking blood from gaping cheek wounds with soft cloths.
One meter sharpened criss-crossed steel poles glittered in the sunlight, multiple metal skewers adorned with fluttering colorful ribbons, double woodenkatana swords, wooden stakes, glistening twisted metal bars and even a pistol, all protruded through and out, of warrior cheeks, tongues and mouths.
As the traffic banked up and the firecrackers continued to burst, the drums beat and the symbols crashed, the crowd surged forward and the procession was off and moving.
Welcome to the Phuket Vegetarian Festival - an event that is definitely a cultural, educational and emotion challenge.
I didn't much like the heat, the tuk-tuk drivers hassling me every time I left my hotel, and I certainly didn't like walking down Soi Bangla in the evening.
I never headed into Phuket Town, nor did I explore the rest of the island.
So I certainly can't say my first trip to Phuket was culturally, educationally or emotionally challenging.
But now I'm back on Phuket, 11 years later, to complete a journalism internship at Phuketwan.
The editor says that I'm lucky enough to be here to cover the annual Vegetarian Festival. Ummmm, right . . . Sure. Lucky me.
Vegetarian Festival? Are you serious?
How interesting can a festival for vegetarians be?
But, wow! What can I say?
The festival has just started and I am experiencing ''vegetarianism'' in ways I never imagined, and perhaps, never want to imagine again.
No vegetarian I ever met in Australia was into self-mortification, facial piercing with swords, metal skewers and bamboo poles.
Most are also probably reluctant to walk over burning coals or climb bladed ladders. But that's what's happening here in Phuket at the moment.
Phuket's Vegetarian Festival is a spiritual and physical event that devotees believe will strengthen and enhance not only their future good luck, but that of their community.
A few days ago, I watched the lantern raising ritual at Jui Tui Shrine. Well, actually, a few thousand people and I squashed into the forecourt at the shrine like sardines, melted, sweated and watched the hour-long ritual together.
As warriors dressed in colorful costumes of brilliant red, yellow and green, many brandishing axes or swords, swayed and chanted, eyes rolled back in a trance, the crowd continued to swell and wait patiently.
As the 40 meter ritual pole, gilded gold with paper, symbolising the presence of the of the nine gods, was raised by hand, the crowd roared and firecrackers exploded, enveloping the shrine in eye-watering smoke.
Leaving the shrine, I threaded my way past hundreds of small stalls selling vegetarian food to devotees dressed in all-white clothing.
For the next nine days, devotees are forbidden to gamble, smoke, drink alcohol, wear jewelry or leather goods and must eat only vegetarian meals.
Later that night, I headed to the beachside Kiew Tien Keng Shrine, to witness a ritual that welcomes the gods to the Vegetarian Festival.
This time I was a little better prepared.
When the firecrackers exploded unexpectedly around my feet, I whipped out my safety glasses and quickly pushed in my earplugs.
Even then, I couldn't stop myself flinching and ducking as fireworks whistled, blasted and burst directly over my head.
As the parade of flag-waving warriors weaved their way down the street, devotees carried elaborate ceremonial carts from many different Phuket shrines onto the beach.
Gathered closely together in the darkness and drizzling rain, hundreds of warriors swayed slowly side by side as they watched their leader throw a pair of wooden kidney-shaped divining blocks to determine if the gods had descended from heaven and arrived at the shrine.
Having successfully arrived in Phuket, the Gods spirits reside in a special incense urn that is placed in seclusion and guarded closely for the duration of the festival.
When the ritual finished, the procession quickly left the beach to return to their shrines.
As I made my way back to my car, crowds of young people dressed in white continued to smoke, laugh and launch random fireworks from the adjacent park.
Other young men on motorcycles sped down the emptying streets, popping wheelies and throwing firecrackers at passing cars.
But perhaps the highlight of the festival to date, if I can call it that, was the first street procession that I went to on Wednesday at Choor Su Gong Naka Shrine, in Phuket Town.
Although this procession was small, perhaps with only a few hundred devotees, I certainly managed to see all the serious gut-wrenching, facial piercing that my morbid curiosity ever thought I needed to see.
With eyes rolled, the warriors swayed back and forth in a steady rhythm as they waited in the sun for the parade to start.
Friends hovering nearby gently poured water into damaged mouths and wiped leaking blood from gaping cheek wounds with soft cloths.
One meter sharpened criss-crossed steel poles glittered in the sunlight, multiple metal skewers adorned with fluttering colorful ribbons, double woodenkatana swords, wooden stakes, glistening twisted metal bars and even a pistol, all protruded through and out, of warrior cheeks, tongues and mouths.
As the traffic banked up and the firecrackers continued to burst, the drums beat and the symbols crashed, the crowd surged forward and the procession was off and moving.
Welcome to the Phuket Vegetarian Festival - an event that is definitely a cultural, educational and emotion challenge.
"For the next nine days, devotees are forbidden to gamble, smoke, drink alcohol, wear jewelery or leather goods and must eat only vegetarian meals".
And must abstain from sex.
Don't forget the sex bit.
Posted by Sir Burr on October 16, 2015 07:57