8 October 2008 - Phuket Vegetarian Festival Day 2

Phuket Vegetarian Festival - Day 2 Tuesday 02 October

We got up at 0600 to a beautiful blue sky and brilliant sun. Phuket is cooler than Udonthani and it was a welcomed relief.

By the time we had finished showering, dressing, and gathering up our gear for the day it was 06:50. We went downstairs in hopes of grabbing breakfast. As we stepped into the lobby, Khun Lak, our driver from last night, pulled up for his 0700 appointment with us. Food would have to wait - we had pictures and an adventure awaiting us! We went to the Sankong Shrine. They were scheduled to parade through town today. The mar song or warriors had already been pierced by the time that we arrived. They were being attended by latex gloved people with what appeared to be bottles of disinfectant and Kleenex tissues. There was not a great deal of blood but the handlers swabbed up any drool and blood that emanated from the piercings.

There was a mar song with two shovels piercing his cheeks. Another spiritual medium had 10 needles piercing his cheeks. One warrior had a glass vase through his face. Some mar song had metal rods piercing their cheeks. Others had palm branches through their cheeks. Little did Duang and I imagine some of the other objects that we would see piercing the faces of the warriors during the upcoming days in Phuket.

The parade was comprised of many white clothed believers, mar song, mar song attendants, men carrying religious statues, children carrying pennants suspended from long bamboo poles, ambulances, trucks carrying people playing drums and cymbals, and sound trucks - a very impressive sight. The sound trucks are modified pickup trucks. They are analogous to the low rider vehicles in Los Angeles. Young Thai men will buy a small pickup truck and extensively customize it become a moving sound machine. The paint is bright and detailed. Extensive chrome is added to the truck body. The real expense is in the sound system. The entire pickup bed is converted into speakers with amplifiers and sometimes generators hidden underneath the speaker assemblies. It is mind boggling as well as mind shattering the amount of sound from and expense paid for these machines. Perhaps their owners were making up for all the times that they annoy people by using their machines to play religious chanting for the parade.

With a huge choking outburst of exploding firecrackers the parade commenced. Duang and I ended up walking the entire length - 2 hours of the parade with the adherents. It was an extraordinary expierence. I estimated that there were 20 to 30 warriors in their trances walking barefoot. Some other mar song including women were not pierced but walked the route barefoot in their possessed state of mind. The pierced mar song had several people handling them. All along the route, residents and businessmen had set up small tables or pineapples, apples, fruit, food, lit candles, burning incense, and several small goblets of liquid that I assumed to be alcohol. Offerings of alcohol are common in Buddhist rituals.

As the parade moved along there was a high level of energy, devotion, and spiritualism. People along the parade route were dressed completely in white. This morning without any prompting from me, Duang had laid out white or near white clothing for us to wear. We blended somewhat in with the other people.

Although the believers are Buddhists, their religion is very different from the Buddhism practiced by the Thai people in Isaan. Duang was unable to explain much of what was happening. In regards to the body mutilation and flowing of blood, she was aghast. I have seen the great differences between Chinese shrines and Thai Wats. Chinese Buddhist shrines are extremely ornate whereas Thai Wats are fancy but nowhere near bordering on ornate in my opinion.

The parade ended up after two hours at the harbor area. Since we had not eaten any breakfast we ended up going to a seafood restaurant on the bay. The restaurant was a series of open air pavilions amongst lush vegetation on the water's edge. There were also several tables set up on a platform over the water. Two pavilions contained basins with live seafood with some aquariums of lobsters and prawns. Another structure at the complex was a combination kitchen, storehouse, and living quarters.

The place was very peaceful and beautiful. I made a mistake and did not inquire about the size of the portions. We ordered prawns, squid, greens, and seafood spring rolls. We were shocked at how much food there was when it was brought to the table. The portions are for two people and not for a single person as I had assumed. Luckily we were very hungry and managed to not waste too much food.

There were two other surprises associated with our meal besides the size of the food portions. Our waitress de-shelled the prawns for us at the table. When we finished our meal, she brought a large bowl of water and some lemon wedges. The surprise was that she washed and dried our hands.

After our wonderful feast we went to another shrine - "Jui Tui" the largest in Phuket. We spent some time there observing the afternoon events. As you entered the shrine's courtyard there was a large canopy in the cnter of a roped off area. Underneath the canopy two large cauldrons of some type of bubbling viscous liquid were being stirred and attended by a succession of men. In the corners of the roped off area were small tables set up as altars. The tables had statues, burning candles, buring incense, and a brass goblet of smoldering wood. We ended up off to the side where a woman and her young daughter were busy cleaning off the spent wax from the brass candle holders. I wandered about and Duang kept in conversation with the woman. Duang eventually ended up helping to remove the wax while the little girl took a break.

Suddenly there was a flurry of fire crackers exploding. This appears to be the sign that something interesting is about to happen during the Festival. Sure enough, some mar song and their attendants entered into the courtyard. They went to the cauldrons and dipped the handles of their whips into the bubbling liquid. There were also several dignitaries both male and female around the cauldrons. The mar song also tasted what was boiling in the kettles. This is one of their rituals that goes along with body mutilation, fire walking, and climbing up ladders bare foot on rungs made of swords.

The warriors in their trance like state then started walking around the rope perimeter. They stopped at the tables and started giving out orders in their shrill voices somewhat in pitch as Sarah Palin. The attendants quickly stripped the tables and the warriors retreated to another building.

We finished our day by visiting a Wat that had one Buddha's teeth on display and lastly to a mountain top where a statue of Buddha is being constructed out of concrete covered with marble tiles. The statue is called "The Great Buddha of Phuket". It was very interest to see and watch how it is being constructed.

We returned to our hotel thoroughly exhausted.