Vegetarian Festival in Thailand is now - - WARNING, GRAPHIC - -

in #travel4 years ago

The Nine Emperor Gods Festival is the official name of this Taoist celebration but in Thailand, particularly among people who are not part of the religion, it is simply known as the "Vegetarian Festival" or "tetsakhan kin jae"(เทศกาลกินเจ.) It is called this because for the 9 days of the festival, participants are prohibited from consuming any animal products in preparation for the ceremonies.

I want to say it again... there are graphic and disturbing images ahead so turn back if you can't handle that sort of thing

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This just says "jae" or vegetable and is a boring picture. I didn't want the preview pic to be scary or nsfw

During this time of year many restaurants will display the above sign which is an indicator that they are adhering to the religious preparation rites (and I don't know what they are aside from the fact that they exist) and that any practicing Taoist can eat there without worry. Technically, only food prepared in Temples are truly "jae," but there are too many people for this so exceptions are made.

The real star of this festival is the parades that to most people seem, rather insane. Basically, a large group of people enter a trance, protected or possessed by spirits so they feel no pain, and the self-mutilation begins.

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The most common sort of spectacle is people sticking items of various sized through their cheeks. The larger and more ridiculous items seem to attract the most attention. In many instance the "pierced" people need to have assistants because they can't carry the items on their own.

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Partial skinning and non medial removal of cysts and moles are quite common during this ceremony as well. While I have never actually seen someone perform the initial piercing, the idea is that the individual can feel no pain because they are possessed by a spirit. No anesthetic is ever used.

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This is my dog's least favorite holiday, because another part of the ritual / parade is that loads of firecrackers are set off around the feet of the people in the procession and most of the time they are not wearing shoes. This obviously has a fantastic opportunity for injury, but it almost never happens.

The fun continues at the local temple, where other pain trials take place such as fire-walking and the climbing of a ladder whose rungs are topped with blades.

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So if you are coming to SteemFest, I'm sorry but it appears you just missed the Vegetarian Festival. It isn't widely celebrated anyway but has a very devoted following in the south-west, primarily on Phuket. It is estimated that half of the island's inhabitants are members of this religion and participate as much as possible.

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Do these people really not feel pain? I would imagine that some of them don't if they believe enough. However, i have a Thai friend who years ago was part of this and he said it hurt like hell but he couldn't show it and he has not told many people about this.

All in all, if you can stomach it and have access to earplugs to handle the all-the-live-long-day firecrackers, this is a pretty interesting event to see.

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One amazing aspect of this entire thing is the fact that despite the obvious dangers of piercing your cheeks, removing your skin, and cutting yourself over and over is that very few of these people end up with permanent scarring. Almost none of them even ever seek getting stitches or any other sort of prolonged care; or even professional medical care of any sort. Most of them return to work almost immediately.

Now i feel like a real wimp, i once cut my hand pretty bad while chopping vegetables and didn't go to work for 3 days afterwards...

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Truly graphics! Amazing ordeal of supernatural power! I wonder how they did it!!

wow...didn't know about it...it impressed me much;)
a very strange choice of activities in honour of vegetarian day;)

Oh wow! Very cool stuff but I wouldn't be able to deal with all of the face stabbing.

I used to live in Austin Texas where there was this dude who was into sword swallowing. I could't bear to watch it. It gives me a panic attack! The guy went on to join a traveling freak show and was quite successful.

Everyone has their own destiny in life, I guess!

yeah the sword swallowing is an odd thing to me as well. I wonder who the first guy that did that was and how it is that he felt compelled to try even further.

With this festival there seems to be an unspoken competition of sorts to see who can put the most ridiculous thing in their cheeks... hence the part of a small motorbike above. I've seen pool cues, brooms, bicycle handlebars, guns both real and fake... just whatever.

Where's the blood on the first guy with the huge dagger through his cheek?

Have you personally been to one of these? Crazy stuff..

I used to own a bar right on the parade route so yeah I've been to a lot of them. The pierced fellas are followed by people constantly flushing the wounds plus the pierced them a long time before arriving.

Others like the last pic cut themselves constantly throughout the day...they bleed a lot.

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All photography very strange..thanks for share your information.

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Urg.. not into those like, at all.. Every time I see, I'm like >.,< or get dizzy. I more enjoy the food than ever though! Vegan food during J Fest is besttt!!!!!

do they do this in BKK at all? Up here in Chiang Mai I haven't noticed anything happening and that is fine with me. Down in the south in Krabi and Phuket it was everywhere... like impossible to get away from the firecrackers everywhere.

I haven't seen it down South. Always stick with fam during the fest as they sell delicious vegan food so.. you know how it goes 😁😁

I have seen those bloody tradition (small one here in Nakhon Pathom) and no,not a fan.

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i can relate to that. I am not a fan either, but since the bar I owned in Krabi was right on the parade route, it was a very profitable day for us for people who wanted to spectacle while not being in the sun and you know,... getting drunk.

I would have to go to really understand all that. The whole festival does not look like fun. I like games, arts and crafts.. you know dangerous stuff lol

Somehow I don't really out those two themes together. I can't even begin to imagine how celebrating one thing can lead to the other thing. I got a paper cut the other day and I could barely function at work! 😁

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I have seen them do something similar with swords and stuff and it is amazing as there is no scarring. Just think the whole thing is crazy yet people are drawn to watch it.

it does seem a bit nuts to me also. While this religion is wide-spread, the south of Thailand is one of the few places in the world where the self-mutilation is practiced and this is not an official part of the ceremony. It makes me wonder how it got started... some dude was like "how about we stab ourselves in the face!" and it gained popular traction somehow.

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