Early Morning at Kathu Shrine

I always try to visit my "local" shrine in the morning when they are doing their street procession as part of the Phuket vegetarian festival. Kathu is (so the history books say) where the festival originated and the local community take a lot of pride in the festival and their history. I already blogged about our visit to the shrine on the 7th for the opening ceremonies of the festival. I also headed to Kathu a couple of times during the week for food, as I tried very hard to stick to the vegetarian diet for the duration of the festival. On Friday 15th the idea was to be at the shrine nice and early, but the morning looked so grey. I did not rush, got to there at about 6:30am, a bit late to watch face piercing. I had been earlier last year and had some piercing photos like this one. Last year the morning was bright and sunny.

Seemed to me that with approaching rain the participants in the procession were keen to get moving. They walk all the way from Kathu to Phuket Town, through town and end by the sea at Sapan Hin, a walk of about 8km. Barefoot. With sharp objects embedded in cheeks, or carrying statues of the emperor gods. Actually, maybe they were glad for a cooler, wetter morning. Easier walking compared to a hot sunny morning.



I had been shopping the day before and bought a 50mm f1.8 lens for my trusty Canon EOS 20D. Figured it would be good for portraits like the one above, and good in lower light. Using a fixed lens is rather odd when you are used to a zoom, the composition of the photo depends a lot more on where you stand, and varying the aperture can have a huge effect. And if you want to zoom out, walk backwards!



The shot above uses f2.8, as I wanted to blur the face and accentuate the piercing on the arm. Obviously the spikes in the cheeks and lips weren't enough for this guy - give me needles in the arms too! And the photo below, one of my favourites from the day, shows I think why I wanted that new lens.



The devotees started out of the shrine at about 7am. I had decided not to follow them to town due to the weather plus this blog is still just for fun - I have a dive shop to run! The guy below is a local policeman and a regular participant in the vegetarian festival.





The Ma Song (above) swings axes outside the shrine. Some of these Ma Song really do cut themselves such as this guy at the Bang Neow shrine procession on the 13th. Some seem rather more careful to swing without cutting too much!

The procession left the shrine led by the most important Ma Song who was carried along on a vehicle. Other Ma Song were on foot. Not all cut themselves. I am not sure of the hierarchy, but I think that the most important Ma Song, the ones who really seem possessed by spirits, are the ones who do not impale themselves. They leap about, or walk bent like old men, offer prayers, and I hear them speaking in strange voices. Can be a bit spooky. A lot of attention goes to those with pierced faces, but Ma Song like the one below are fascinating to watch.



The way they walk, talk and move, I defy anyone to tell me it's all an act. I am sure there is something quite real happening, even if it's sometimes hidden behind the showmen - the ones who stick unusual objects in their cheeks in the hope of getting their picture in the paper! Yes, I mean you, Mr "baseball bat"!



The rear of the procession is the loudest. While the odd firecracker may be thrown at the feet of the Ma Song, the majority are saved for the gods and those carrying them. As the emperor god images are paraded through Kathu village, I dashed around trying to avoid deafness and too much smoke inhalation and trying to get a photo. The guys carrying the god images are prepared - wearing sports shoes rather than sandals and certainly not barefoot like the pierced devotees. Barefoot would be asking for burns! Firecrackers are thrown and hoisted above the gods on bamboo poles. The noise and smoke are something to witness.





As the procession left the village that was pretty much the end of the festival for me. I did attend the fire walking event at Kathu shrine on the 16th (photos here) and very very almost lasted an entire 10 days on the vegetarian diet. By the evening of Saturday 16th I was ready for a big ol' burger and it happened that a friend's restaurant (The Lunch Room) had just been renovated and does burgers and they have big TVs to watch the English football! Farewell vegetarian festival 2010. Next year the festival starts earlier (date depends on Chinese lunar calendar), about September 27th. So, only 11 months to go!

• More photos from Vegetarian Festival at Kathu Shrine 15th October (Flickr)

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Bang Neow Shrine - Street Procession in Phuket Town

October 13th was the day for devotees from Bang Neow shrine to strut their stuff. Bang Neow and Jui Tui shrines have the 2 largest processions. I had been to the Jui Tui procession last year, which was huge, and very crowded around the shrine. The weather thus far in the festival had not been great. I'd been along to 2 shrines (see previous blog entry) in the morning of the 10th and 11th under grey skies, and when I woke at 6am on the 13th, the sky looked heavy. I almost headed straight back to bed, but after a coffee, I decided that fortune favours the bold (Latin lesson: fortuna audax iuvat). And, fortune did indeed smile on Phuket Town that morning. It turned out to be a sunny, hot morning. Great for photos, maybe not to great for walking 5 miles with swords in your face under a burning sun.

I was there before the procession hit the old town - they first walked south to Sapan Hin, then back up towards to old town. The procession route was shown on a map from the TAT office so I had some idea where might be the best places to stand for photos. On a sunny morning, the sun shines right along the East-West streets of the old town. I walked around past the market and began taking photos there as the procession started to pass.



These were the first in line (above) walking along the road between the market and Jui Tui shrine. The sunlight was very strong so I tried to find another place where the sun would shine on the faces of the people in the procession. It was one of those hot mornings where it's already roasting before 8am, especially if you're dashing around trying to keep up with entranced Ma Song! Standing in one place does not really work if you want to take photos. You need to walk along with the procession, walk backwards in front of devotees, hope your camera can focus on the move, keep out of the way of sharp spikes jutting from cheeks... sometimes those with pierced faces will stop for a second for a photo, some seem more entranced and keep moving, eyed fixed.



I walked and jogged along with my trusty Canon looking for both sides of the festival. There is deep tradition here, one has to be aware of this, I am acutely aware of not getting too much in the way when taking photos. The faces of the local people watching show the respect they have for the participants in the procession and the respect they have for the festival. The respect is passed down to the younger generation...



The Bang Neow procession is a big one. I was in town for over 2 hours and the procession was still going on. I actually ran out of memory, filled a 2 GB card on the camera. Too easy to do when shooting in RAW but I had not filled a whole card in a couple of hours before! Will be sure to have a 4 or 8 GB card next time. Of course some were all blurry or not all that great but I have distilled them down and put some of the good ones on Flickr.



Oops, sorry, should have warned you about that one. Too late now.





After seeing a few years worth of vegetarian festivals I have got used to seeing the pierced faces, a bit of blood and gore. The participants who suffer in this way are doing it for the good of their community. Their pain brings good luck to everyone. At the rear of the procession, statues of the emperor gods are paraded. It's considered an honour, maybe even a proof of manhood in the community to carry one of the statues. Nothing too hard about it except you're walking miles through a hail of firecrackers aimed at the statue (next to your head) or at your feet. You'll see from the photos below, these guys are not too macho - they wear shoes that cover the feet and cover heads and faces with towels or face masks to avoid too much smoke inhalation. Just walking along with the procession for a while, I was choking on smoke and my ears were ringing from the firecrackers. Quite a buzz really!





Unfortunately I ought to be at the dive shop by 9am, and so maybe the full memory card was a good thing or I may have lost track of time and followed the procession for another hour. The watching crowds were big by 9am. This festival is important here, although it is celebrated in other areas where there are Chinese-Thai communities (Bangkok, Trang). My wife was in Chumphon this week and they do it there too, but Phuket is where it's at! This is ground zero, this is the epicentre. Walking along with the procession and being surrounded by the tradition, the noise, the Ma Song and the endless firecrackers - love it.

To come - more from the vegetarian festival, morning of the 15th I was at my "local" shrine in Kathu.. and after that I can get back to blogging about the other, less bloody Phuket! I was on holiday before the festival started so have a few little things to write about.

• More photos from Bang Neow procession (on Flickr)

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2010 Vegetarian Festival (Part 1)

Well, that's all done for another year. One of the craziest times of year in Phuket.. come to think of it, certainly the craziest. Some people hate the vegetarian festival or are bored by it, or just moan that the street processions disrupt traffic around Phuket Town. Some people hardly notice the festival, as it really only affects Phuket Town and small communities with a Chinese-Thai background like Kathu, Sapam or Tha Reua. If you sit on the beach at Kata for the duration of the festival, you won't see anything. Personally I love it. Love the old traditions, love the way the local community comes together and maintain these traditions, I love the crazy street processions, love taking photos and I also use the vegetarian festival as an excuse for 10 days of detox. I stick to the diet, drink no alcohol.. although I don't wear white and certainly don't impale myself with sharp objects. Leave that to the real devotees.

• Lots of photos here: Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2010 (my Flickr photos)

This blog post covers the first few days of the festival which started on October 7th in the afternoon with the raising of the Go Teng pole at all the shrines. I went along to Kathu shrine with my family. We managed to dilly and dally and just missed the actual pole raising by a few minutes but did watch as the lanterns were raised up. The lanterns would be lit later that night. It is said that the gods descend into the shrines at midnight. I must try to get to Kathu shrine at midnight sometime!



As we arrived the pole was just being tied up with guy ropes before the lanterns were attached to a large bamboo branch which was then hoisted halfway up the Go Teng pole with 9 lanterns hanging from it - 9 lanterns for the 9 emperor gods.



Many people come to the shrine on the first evening for prayers. There was also a firework display which we could see from our house - must remember next year to stay in the village for the fireworks! Below - a couple of photos in the shrine. Kathu is an important part of the festival, because Kathu is where the festival started in 1825. Shrines in Phuket Town like Jui Tui and Bang Neow are larger, but the people of Kathu know their history and take a lot of pride in the old traditions.





• More Photos at Kathu Shrine 7th October (Flickr Slideshow)

Fireworks and especially firecrackers play an important part in the festival. Loud firecrackers are said to drive away bad luck and bad spirits. We bought a few fireworks home - the kids enjoyed playing with sparklers...



The first main event of the festival was the first street procession on the 10th of October from Sapam Shrine, which is about 7km north of Phuket Town. I went to the shrine before 7am, before the procession left the shrine - they walk all the way into town from there. It was a busy morning at the shrine - Sapam is not a big community but I think they were all there!



* Warning - if you scroll down further, there are graphic images which may not appeal to all people *

The festival is partly about purifying the body by eating the right food, drinking no Chang beer etc... but I hope nobody reads the words "vegetarian festival" and thinks that Phuket is full of hippies and tofu burgers and "meat is murder" t-shirts. Indeed, there is plenty of blood spilled during the festival. Some people are (so I believe) born to be Ma Song, or "Crazy Horses". Some of these Ma Song undergo acts of self mutilation or extreme piercing. By doing this it is said they bring luck to their community. Some of it is quite gruesome, some is more spiritual. Here are some of the Ma Song at Sapam Shrine ...



Above - this Ma Song has just had his face done. Well, had his face impaled by 6 fairly large swords, actually. Just doing his bit for the local community. So is the guy below, though his chosen torture is pineapples.



• More photos from Sapam Shrine, 10th October (Flickr Slideshow)

The next day, 11th October, was the turn of Sam Kong Shrine, which is easy to find on the Northern edge of Phuket Town only 800m from the big Tesco Lotus store. The Sam Kong area is packed with food stalls during the festival - some photos here. Again I was at the shrine early, though maybe not early enough. To see the actual piercing taking place you gotta catch the early bird! I was there 6:30am, should have been there at 6. But it was a grey and slightly wet morning and did rain quite a bit later. I did not follow the procession into town as I had plans to be in town for either the 13th (Bang Neow Shrine) or 14th (Jui Tui).





The face piercing above is more traditional using fairly small (but sharp) skewers with Chinese heads on the ends. In more recent years I feel that the piercing has become a kind of competition. And I am sure that the participants/devotees are aware that by piercing your face with something large or bizarre, you're more likely to make the papers! Or at least make it onto Jamie's Phuket :)





Alongside the weirder piercings you find the tradition and history. It's sometimes hard to imagine, but this festival has been part of Phuket for a long long time. When the festival originated, George IV was King of England. The old tradition is very much alive and I do sometimes feel a bit guilty of getting in the way while trying to take a photo. The vegetarian festival is touted as a tourist attraction and I do think that this year I saw more tourists and more foreigners with cameras at some of the events, but not so many really. This IS something to experience for sure, but I know that 95% of visitors come to Phuket for sun, sea, sand, seafood and other things beginning with S. At the shrines I saw familiar faces of local residents and locally based photographers, and also a few photo pros with big lenses and "my camera is bigger than yours" attitudes :)



• More photos at Sam Kong Shrine 11th October (Flickr Slideshow)

More photos and words coming soon. I was in Phuket Town on the 13th for the Bang Neow Shrine procession and at Kathu Shrine on the 15th on a grey drizzly morning. More photos on my Flickr page and more information about the festival with links to older posts on this blog here: The Amazing Phuket Vegetarian Festival.

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Old Phuket Town Tour with Phuket Heritage Trails

Phuket to many people means beaches, family holidays, nightlife, luxury resorts, shopping, maybe diving, snorkeling, sailing, golf, elephant rides, tours and of course the famous smile :) A lot of the reason for this blog is to highlight the other Phuket, the history, the festivals and local life, local restaurants and things to do that might not be so obvious. Visitors may not realise that Phuket has a rich and varied history, although you can't find much sign of this by sitting on the beach. The beach areas were sparsely inhabited until recently. The main population areas 100 years ago included Thalang (in the center of the island) and Phuket Town. Thalang was the main town until the late 19th century. Phuket Town became very important due to the tin mining boom in the 19th century as well as the rubber industry, and it's access to the sea with a sheltered port. Some parts of Phuket Town are more modern, especially around the edges, with shopping malls and new houses, but the old town remains a great place to explore, full of historical interest.

I have done many walks around the town, but when I found Phuket Heritage Trails on Facebook, I wanted to do a walk with them. The tours are run by 2 Phuket ladies - Kritchaya (Pu or Chaya) and Chutikarn (Gan). From the photos they had posted on Facebook, I could see that they were Phuket enthusiasts with a lot of knowledge to share, and since my family was visiting from England, we set up a morning tour at the end of September. We met at "the dragon" next to the TAT office on Thalang Road at 9am. We had our own transport of course, but they explained that they would normally be able to pick up from hotels. It's best to start early to avoid the heat of the day, but on the other hand some shops don't open until 9am or later! The dragon is a symbol of Phuket, as it's a Chinese belief that the island of Phuket is a dragon risen from the ocean.

Right away, as we walked west onto the main stretch of Thalang Road, which has had all overhead wires removed, Pu pointed out a building detail that I had not seen before. The facade on this old house still has the detailed carving below the 2nd floor windows - apparently most houses used to have this, but all except this one have been modified in the last hundred years.



Thalang Road probably needs it's own blog page sometime, it's so full of old houses and shops, always something of interest to be found. There are many shops selling cloth and clothing, many of them are Muslim owned, and there are a couple of Muslim restaurants selling Roti (pancakes) and curry. We stopped at Abdul's Roti Shop for breakfast as part of the tour. I had just roti with condensed milk, dad had one with banana, mum was brave and had roti with masaman curry. All washed down with strong coffee.



We enjoyed watching the guy making roti, whirling the mixture around making it thinner. If you're in old town, I do recommend trying some roti!



Many of the houses on Thalang road are private homes, although many are businesses - everything from hardware to herbs to pharmacies and a doctors clinic. Sometimes you get a glimpse inside one of the old houses to the cool interior. I'd love to own one of these houses!



Phuket has people of various religions living side by side. On Thalang Road close to the Muslim shops and next door to the Christian Assembly hall there is a Chinese shrine that I had somehow never noticed before, called Sanjao Hailam - Hailam is the local word for the "Hainan" area of China, from where many people emigrated in the 19th and early 20th century to Phuket as well as to parts of Malaysia and also to Singapore.





There is a very active old town association in Phuket which aims to preserve the heritage and culture in this part of Phuket, so although there have been some modifications to buildings you don't find much in the way of ugly architecture here. of course over time, things need replacing but since a lot of the house and shop owners on Thalang Road are maybe 4th generation, they all have a certain pride in their town. Some houses need some fixing up, some look older than others. We all noticed the tiled roof below that looks like it could well be original.



We stopped for a drink at a cafe next door to the Phuket Thai Hua Museum, which I have visited before. It used to be free entry, but now has been renovated and there are more exhibits - we decided not to visit on this walk as we'd all been there before, but the cafe next door was good!



As you head west along Thalang Road, it becomes Krabi road, still very much part of the old town with many old houses. The museum is on Krabi road, and we headed a bit further west to visit the Chinpracha House, one of the oldest mansions in Phuket. The walking took a while, as we all had cameras, and someone would find something to snap every few meters!



Chinpracha House was built in 1903 by Tan Ma Siang, the son of an immigrant from the Hokkien region of China who had moved to Phuket in the mid 19th century for tin mining. The house next door was also built by the same guy. There was controversy a couple of years ago, as the owner (grandson of Tan Ma Siang) died, leaving the house and part of the land to his wife, and part of the land to his brother, who sold the land where some shophouses have now been built... there is still an ongoing court case as many people including Khun Daeng, widow of Khun Pracha Tandavanitj objected to the building of modern shophouses on the land. There is an admission fee of 150 Baht to Chinpracha House. Inside there are fantastic tiled floors.. I'd love some of these tiles in our house!



I loved looking at the historical photos in the house showing the generations of family who have lived here. Whole walls of photos...





We were also introduced to Khun Daeng, a lovely lady, and I wish her luck in trying to get those shophouses removed! Now, on a normal tour, if you contact Phuket Heritage Trails for a booking, they will have a minibus which will then pick people up at the end of the trail, which might be at Chinpracha House... We had to walk back to our car and it was getting hot! Back to the TAT office is about 1 kilometer, though we took a detour to get lunch at a corner cafe recommended by Pu and Gan... which turned out to be closed, so we decided on lunch at Kaewjai restaurant near the bus station, which is a favourite of mine, doing good local food, always quite full at lunchtime, we were lucky to find a free table!



Above - group walk photo taken by mum - from left, Gan, Pu, Jamie, my dad and my cousin Simon. I can walk around Phuket Town for hours. There are some links below to other Phuket Town blog posts. Always something new to find and learn, if you are interested in that kind of thing! Anyone wanting to take a very good guided tour can contact Chaya at Phuket Heritage Trails by email (phuketheritagetrails@gmail.com) or look on the Facebook Page. The morning Phuket Town tour price was 1,950 Baht/person (including Breakfast & Lunch).

• Hotels in Phuket Town
• Walk in Old Town (June 2011)
• Phuket Photo Walk 2010
• Baba Weddings in Phuket
• Thalang Road in old Phuket Town

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