Phuket Vegetarian Festival

The Vegetarian Festival of Phuket is a well-known event among Thais and foreigners alike. Once a year, for a period of 3-9 days, the citizens of Phuket get to make merit by refraining from eating meat, therefore discouraging the killings of innocent lives.

This is an act of selflessness which has been practiced for many generations. Taking the vow to become a vegetarian first started during the Ayutthaya period by the Nai Thu (Kathu) people. The area this community inhabited was the site for tin-mining which naturally attracted people from all directions.

At the time, it was a thick forest with jungle fever and all sorts of danger- and yet, more and more people kept on coming. Soon, news of Kathu’s abundance in tin supply seemed to have spread all over the world.

The Chinese in those days strongly worshipped the family God or the village’s God who were angels of the earth and sky, dead ancestors and spirits. Whenever an unfortunate incident happened, they would ask those Gods to protect them from harm. This belief still continues to a certain extent until today.

The vegetarian festival in Phuket was first started by a Chinese opera company who traveled from Mainland China to Kathu to give a performance. After they had settled down for a while, sickness began to spread among them and the people. Soon, they realized that they had forgotten to perform a ‘Jia Shai’ (vegetable-eating) ceremony which may have been the cause for aggravating the Gods.

So, a vegetable-eating ceremony was performed. Predictably enough, sickness soon alleviated. Since then, the Chinese opera company suggested to the people of Kathu that they should invite the Gods down to earth to worship and perform the ‘Jia Shai’ ceremony so the Gods will keep them safe from harm.

People began to adopt this vegetable-eating practice (which can be for a period of 9 days or less) and throughout the entire period, sickness was nowhere to be seen. This further strengthened the belief of the people and their faith became stronger than ever.

When the ‘Jia Shai’ ceremony was being carried out, a wiseman was watching the procedure and suggested that it was not being done properly according to the ‘Kang Sai’ people in China. So, he volunteered to travel to China to bring the holy joss stick to Kathu. Everyone chipped-in a bit of their money for his travel and 2-3 years later, the wiseman returned with joss stick dust. The next morning, he performed a ceremony chanting away prayers from sacred writings and putting up name tags and signs in front of the Am Shai Tung.

During the nine-day Vegetarian Festival, the most impressive thing about it is the sight of small children, teens, adults and the elderly of Phuket all dressed up in white and ready to embark on the journey to purity and faith.

Regular restaurants around Phuket temporarily transform themselves into vegetarian restaurants in the attempt to get visitors to join them on this life-changing journey. Parades of Buddha statues from different shrines are also being hailed around town during this time.

Along both sides of the streets, the people of Phuket would take their positions to present their offerings to the monks. Tea and fruits would be offered; and if they were lucky, the monks would return the fruits back to them for good fortune.

All through the day, you will hear sounds of fire-crackers exploding; the louder the noise the better as this means that the Gods are certain to hear you. This is believed to bring auspiciousness into everyone’s lives. On the last day of the ceremony when the ‘Giew Hong Tai Tae’ (The Nine Great Gods) is being sent back to heaven, a colorful parade would be hailed around town, always ending at Saphan Hin.

The vegetarian festival has been practiced for over a hundred years and became a well-known event around the world as a result of unwavering faith of the Phuket people. It is important to witness the activities that happen on the last day of the ceremony for visitors to fully understand the intensity and greatness of Phuket’s Vegetarian Festival.