The festival illustrates a fascinating aspect of Phuket’s cultural traditions – the complex intermingling of Chinese religious beliefs, with Thai native dogma. During the 19th century tin ore was discovered in the Kathu area and in 1895 the Governor Praya Jerm moved the capital town there, from Ta Reua. Hundreds of Hokkien Chinese were drafted in to do the mining. They either brought their families with them or intermarried with the locals. The Chinese community soon gained such critical mass that an itinerant Chinese opera company visited to entertain them. Here the story gets a little confused, but basically the whole district was struck by a major epidemic and almost everybody except the opera players became sick. Following their beliefs, the players had stuck to their religious calendar, which at this time of year required that they observe a strict vegetarian diet and offer prayers to two Chinese gods, Kiew Ong Tai and Yok Ong Sone Teh. The residents concluded that this religious observance was the reason for the visitors’ invulnerability.

An alternative explanation may be that, since Kathu was a swampy jungle and it was the time of the monsoon rains, the visitors may have introduced a malarial strain to which they themselves were immune. When the rains stopped the breeding ponds of the mosquitoes disappeared and the epidemic abated naturally.

Be that as it may. The following year, the Haio Lan and Lian Tui regalia and sacred scripts were brought from China. When this precious cargo arrived at the port of Bang Niao, the whole community went there to welcome the ship. The tradition of processions was thus born.

On the fi rst night of the ninth lunar month, a sacred ten-metre lantern pole is raised to facilitate the arrival of the gods, and at midnight, nine lanterns are suspended – one for each god. In a slightly anomalous observance the Hindu god Shiva is also believed to be present, and just to be on the safe side off erings are made to Lam Tao and Pak Tao. The festival then continues for nine more days with much burning of incense, banging of drums and letting off of fi reworks to ward off evil spirits.

The bizarre climax of the celebration is the street processions of devotees known as "Ma Song" or ‘possessed horses’. These religious zealots elevate themselves to a trancelike state and perform acts of mortifi cation, which range from walking across red-hot coals to immersing themselves in hot oil. Adherents also pierce their faces and tongues with everything from skewers to bicycle spokes. Believe it or not, this self-mutilation results in little bleeding or subsequent scarring – stranger than fiction.

On the evening of Saturday the 16th of October, there’s a huge procession around Phuket Town, with people carrying statues of the gods. This ends in Sapan Hin. Many restaurants and stalls all over the island will fl y yellow banners decorated with red script, proclaiming that they are off ering authentic vegetarian food, and it’s delicious. Somehow the cooks manage to prepare dishes from soybean and protein substitute products which are just as tasty as the normal fare.

This year the festival will be held from the eighth to the sixteenth October. For more information on dates and events contact: TAT Phuket office,
Tel: +66 (0)76 211036, +66 (0)76 212213