Every year for nine days, Phuket puts on a sparkling white garb and gets ready to celebrate of one of Thailand's most unique festivals. Buddhists of Chinese ancestry give up meat, alcohol and sex for nine days in a fastidious attempt to cleanse the mind, body and soul.

The vegetarian festival changes the face of the island for these nine days. Work, traffic, daily lives all take a back seat as the festivities drive the island. Shrines are virtual hives of spiritual activity as hundreds of followers gather at the altars to offer their prayers.

Colourful parades criss-cross the state, with the 'Ma Song' carrying their spiritual devotion and message in their unique, fascinating way. Devotees test their endurance and prove their faith by walking across burning hot coals and climbing up ladders with blades for rungs. It's not for the faint-hearted, but for sheer impact, there are no parallels.

It's no exaggeration to say that the vegetarian festival changes the look and essence of the island.

Stalls selling greasy fried chicken and sun dried squids take a sneaky route to temporary oblivion, and suddenly, all you can see are yellow flags above throbbing centres of trade, where vegetarian goodies are manufactured industriously and are claimed almost just as dexterously.

Lined along the streets leading to Buddhist shrines all along Phuket are the annual sights of little booths with their vegetarian fare. Fruit juices, teas without milk and brightly coloured syrups are laddled out into cups, while vegetarians contemplate the various foods on offer.

The Phuket Post took an inside look at the festival and delved into the efforts, beliefs and traditions behind the scenes.

The Vegetarian cause
KANOM PIAH

Stall owner Won dee Pangkayan and family.

With a name like that, you're half-thinking of characters from Hans Christian Andersen and Kipling, but Khun Won and the rest of her family are completely Thai. They moved to Phuket from Antong province nearly 40 years ago and when it's not veggie festival time, some of the six members of the family go to university, while others sell produce at the night market in Phuket town.

For the festival, the family, for fifteen days will do nothing else but prepare for and man their stall with the vegetarian message. Days before the stall actually opens, the family has already given up all other activities, for the nine-day festival.

Up long before the first sliver of light hits the island, their first chore of the day is setting off to buy the freshest of produce available from the downtown market.

Hours before the stalls will actually open, Khun Won and her family begin preparations to make their speciality cakes, which in a few hours, will attract hordes of regular customers, queueing up for their chance to buy them.

These speciality cakes, “kanom piah” contain taro, peanuts and a whole selection of mysterious ingredients. With a secret recipe known only to family members and handed down over the years, Khun Won and the rest of the family labour over their delicious little cakes.

Enormously popular, and sold only during this festival these cakes sell like...well, hot cakes. So much in demand are they, apparently, that customers have to buy a ticket to get in line for the purchase.

The stall opens between 8 and 9 am and after that, there's very litte rest for the family, as they churn-out cake after delicious cake, all day long, until it's finally time to retire and get some sleep...to ready themselves for the same, devoted grind the next day.

It's a time for faith and family bonding. The family uses this time and the departure from their normal routines to strenghten its bonds. Working closely together, round the clock, over a common cause brings them ever closer, and the shared experience of their labour and devotion revitalizes ties.

The family shares equally in the profits, and at the end of their annual odyssey, go back to their normal lives, until the next year.


The Philanthropic cause

HER TER Restaurant
Khun Vijitra Turevaded and her volunteers

A little know fact is that during this festival, volunteers from all over the globe gather to celebrate their common heritage and origins from mainlaind China.

Our reporter spoke to people from Taiwan, the USA and other countries, who make the annual pilgrimage to make merit and ensure harmony in their next life.

These volunteers gather at the Her Ter restaurant every year, to help with this altruistic cause enshrined in the festival.

Here they will labour tirelessly for hours, preparing the foods that will be sold at the stall. Money earned from this stall will go to further several of the buddhist causes of learning and devotion at the shrine that houses the deity they pay homage to.

With no reward but the merit they have earned from their endeavours, the volunteers depart at the end of every festival, only to return the next year to renew their efforts and devotion.


The Spiritual cause

The story of the vegetarian mystic.

Kity has been a Ma Song for twenty years. He has a temple in front of his house in Kathu, and here he devotes his life to his religion and his beliefs.

His calling came when Kity was 17 years old, and fell very ill from an affliction that no one could indentify. Impossible to cure, Kity had lost all hopes of living, and medicine having failed him, gave himself over to spiritual healers of many faiths, Buddhist, Chinese and Muslim.

Through his spiritual wanderings, Kity felt the Ma Song calling. He believed that spirits wanted him to do good things, and that if he desisted, his life would be short, and his destiny unfulfilled.

And so Kity devoted himself to his spiritual calling, to doing good deeds, and helping others. Now a renowned mystic on Phuket, with a large following of believers, he is often approached to call upon the spirits for guidance and consultation.

He has never taken ill, nor had any mishap since he gave himself up to the spirits and became a Ma Song, Kity told the Post.

During the festival, when the spirits enter his body, he wants to show the people the strength of his faith. Inserting a special spear through his cheeks and hanging fruit from it, he walks in a daily procession in Kathu, except for the last two days of the festival, when he is summoned to join in the procession around Saphan Hin.

He feels no pain, Kity tells our reporter, when he takes the spear from his mouth. And the wounds heal in a few short days.

Kity remains unattached, married only to his beliefs, which allows him to be pure of heart and dedicated to his calling.