Face facts: How not to hold your knife as the Phuket Vegetarian Festival makes its point

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By CHRIS LEADBEATER

Blade runner: A participant in the Phuket Vegetarian Festival finds an unusual use for his knife collection


It is one of the first parental lessons you are taught as a young child. Sit up straight at the table, hold your knife and fork correctly, don’t play with your food. And definitely – definitely – don’t pierce your cheeks with the cutlery and push a spoon through the hole.

However, they do things a little differently in Thailand – as these images of the latest Phuket Vegetarian Festival demonstrate.

This annual nine-day event (which runs until October 16th) sees participants put themselves through a series of often painful trials.


As well as thrusting metal implements into their faces, the hardy souls involved walk on heated coals, take baths in hot oil and – perhaps most unnerving of all – climb ladders with rungs made of blades rather than wood.


Big event: The Festival sees parades and fireworks as well as displays of self-mutilation


But there is a serious side to proceedings beyond mere masochism.

The festival is supposed to be a programme of self-cleansing. Aside from their unusual antics with pointed pieces of metal, participants agree to give up alcohol, sex and – as the name suggests – meat for the duration of the event.

The festival’s origins are almost as odd as its unusual rituals.

It dates back to 1825, and the visit of a travelling Chinese theatre company to the Thai mining town of Get-Hoe.


Loud and proud: Devotees also detonate fire-crackers to dispel evil spirits


When the touring actors succumbed to tropical fever in the jungle-clad region, they opted to keep to a strict vegetarian diet, hoping that this would please the gods – who would then relieve them of the illness.

The plan worked – and whether or not the thespians’ improved health was down to better diet than celestial intervention – the festival was born.


Making a point: Devotees believe their painful trials bring good luck to those around them


Almost two centuries on, the face-piercing and mutilation are sacred rites that participants submit themselves to in a bid to cleanse themselves and their neighbours.

Devotees believe that they are entered by divine spirits during the festival. The possession gives them supernatural powers – and the ability to endure these excruciating tortures for the common good.

Their suffering – they hope – draws evil out of the community around them and, in doing so, brings positive luck to their friends and village.


Skewered: The nine-day festival runs until October 16


Happily for those who don’t wish to put themselves through something that will require heavy reconstructive surgery once the party is over, there are other ways to scare off dark powers.

The firework displays that take place during the festival – including the loudest and biggest, which rounds off matters on the final night – are also deemed to fend off evil spirits through sheer force of noise.


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