Phuket Vegetarian Festival
The Vegetarian Festival is on again; here another image from a previous occasion.
Every year in the 9th lunar month the descendants of Chinese immigrants throughout SE Asia celebrate the festival in honour of the 9 emperor gods. Over a period of 10-20 days the participants purify body and mind through strict diet and abstinence from impure or intoxicating acts and sex, as well as feats of endurance and suffering.
Shrines and god figurines are carried through town in daily street processions and purified in a hailstorm of firecrackers. Select few operate as mediums called ม้าทรง (lit. 'horse officially enrolled for duty'). Through them the gods accept offerings and make blessings along the road, face to face with participants or on altars lining the streets.
Some endure the (sometimes extreme) piercings and long processions seemingly clear and in control, some conscious of the representation and show effect; others are in trance and in different spheres altogether.
For me this image conveys how surreal and mad this spectacle can get at times. Tons of firecrackers exploding all around, people moving in all directions, some full of cheer, others in deep prayer and others just taking it all in somehow.
*Earplugs and sturdy glasses highly recommended.
© All rights reserved. Please do not use my images and text without prior written permission.
Phuket Vegetarian Festival
The Vegetarian Festival is on again; here another image from a previous occasion.
Every year in the 9th lunar month the descendants of Chinese immigrants throughout SE Asia celebrate the festival in honour of the 9 emperor gods. Over a period of 10-20 days the participants purify body and mind through strict diet and abstinence from impure or intoxicating acts and sex, as well as feats of endurance and suffering.
Shrines and god figurines are carried through town in daily street processions and purified in a hailstorm of firecrackers. Select few operate as mediums called ม้าทรง (lit. 'horse officially enrolled for duty'). Through them the gods accept offerings and make blessings along the road, face to face with participants or on altars lining the streets.
Some endure the (sometimes extreme) piercings and long processions seemingly clear and in control, some conscious of the representation and show effect; others are in trance and in different spheres altogether.
For me this image conveys how surreal and mad this spectacle can get at times. Tons of firecrackers exploding all around, people moving in all directions, some full of cheer, others in deep prayer and others just taking it all in somehow.
*Earplugs and sturdy glasses highly recommended.
© All rights reserved. Please do not use my images and text without prior written permission.