Phuket, Vegitable Eating Festival.

Yellow Festival Flags Phuket.

Street kitchen Phuket Town.

The Festival started on the 24 September, the start of my 75th year, so what more fitting occasion could I ask for than to sit here in an open air dinning room listening to a female voices chanting Buddhist  chant . They drift through the air, the music has a  soft and mesmeric quality accompanied by some form of reed pipes. This chanting was to continue for the next nine day at Kata Country House for the duration of the Vegetable Eating Festival. Their rhythmic harmonic cords follow a repetitive structure up and down. I am not sure whether nine plays any role in the chants, but the number plays an important role in the Festival as it is held in the ninth month for nine days. Tradition holds that nine immortals return to earth each year to assist people who are struggling to lead satisfactory lives.

Phuket Main Temple,
Centre for the Festival.

Another Vegan Street Kitchen.

Participants need to register and only eat a vegan diet for the nine days to cleanse their bodies of toxin. Luckily the resort at which I am staying has put on a special menue for the duration, the things they can do with tofu borders on the amazing. On the final day participants attend the temple [ hopefully they have been doing so over the nine days] to hear their names read out, so the immortals my take their names back to the other world. The Phuket Chinese built a special temple for this Taoist Lent. These fasting ceremonies as practiced by Taoist are called "Chai".

Apparently in 1825 Phuket suffered from a fever, but a group of Chinese actors under took a fast and were not affected. A Chinese resident named Kang-Si thought thought local religious practice differed from Taoist ritual in China and offered to go to China and search for the necessary statues, items and healing books. The local Chinese collected the money and when he returned on the 7th day of the ninth lunar month with talismans, magic formulas and a sign to place in front of the shrine the Festival was born. It is claimed that disease is caused by bad actions, thoughts and behavior. Fasting expels the toxin from the body allowing good feeling to return. I must say I felt very good after only six days.

Phuket Temple.

Devotees making offerings

While I was in Phuket the Chinese community dressed in white as a sign of purity and were all on best behaviour, no over charging or asking silly pricing. There are a number of commitments that need to be followed such as only eating vegetable, no acholic beverage, no sex, cleanliness and so on. If  you don't follow the commitments you fail. This verdict is arrived at by a number of tests such as walking on hot coals, piecing your body with sharp objects. On the the final days I saw a number of participants being driven around in the back of a Ute looking for intent and purposes with out discomfort with sharp spikes pushed through their cheeks. Taoist in China do not follow this self harm practices for some reason they are only carried out in Phuket.