9 October 2008 Phuket Vegetarian Festival Day 4

Phuket Vegetarian Festival - Day 4, 04 October 2008

We slept a little later this morning because my strategy was to let the parade come to us rather than us marching with them. Rather than finding the parade and keeping up with the group, today we set up at a convenient location and let the parade march by us. We walked 4 blocks to a point where the parade made a 90 degree turn on their way to the park at the finish point. It was a terrific location.

Due to the change in direction the parade would slow down. The participants were very friendly and cooperative. They would stop and pose for photographers. I personally do not want to interfere with people - however I had no problem in having Thai people stop the warriors to photograph them with me jumping in to get my shots.

I was shooting like crazy and by this time had over 1,200 digital photos. I knew that I was headed for a problem. My digital media could handle roughly 1,600 pictures with fire walking that night and the best parade scheduled for the next morning. I did not want to ration by photo selection and perhaps miss "The Shot". I shot freely. My plan was to finda shop that would transfer the electronic files from my digital media to DVD disks.

I found a shop near our hotel and the owner transferred the files to two DVDs for $11 USD - far cheaper than buying additional media even if I could have found it.

That evening we went to the fire walking ritual. The fire walking venue was an approximate 100 foot by 100 foot roped off area. The area had 7 rows of plastic chairs along its perimeter. There were 4 shrines on the outside of the roped off area. In the center was a large mound of burning wood approximately 20 feet by 30 feet and 3 feet high.

Every so often two men would tamp down the burning mound using a long strap with a large rectangle in the center.

The spectators were extremely well behaved - I saw only one policeman at the site though I am certain there must have been more. I am certain that the rules for not drinking alcohol and being moral in thoughts and actions contribute greatly to the behavior of the spectators. The audience was allso made up of people of all ages with many groups of three generations of a family represented.

Small fireworks were being set off by people on the outside of the venue. Some warriors appeared inside the roped off area and spent a lot of time generally milling around. Once in a while they approached the burning mound feel the heat or toss some rice on the embers. After about 45 minutes of general inactivity, the warriors started to prepare themselves for the upcoming ritual. Some took pieces of paper and set them afire from the burning mound. The warrior then passed the burning paper around his body as well as between his legs in an act of purification. Suddenly large fireworks started to be shot from two separate locations into the sky above our heads. It was beautiful as well as impressive. Excitement was building rapidly throughout the venue. About 15 minutes after the completion of the professional fire works, all hell broke loose. The idols were entering into the venue atop the shoulders of young men - just like during the morning parades. It was like a war - firecrackers were exploding 360 degrees around the fire walking venue. The fusilade continued for at least 10 minutes. The sky was filled with billowing clouds of smoke.

Once the idols had been placed in their final locations, the mar song paid their respects and went into a deeper trance. They ended up in a line at the far end of the mound of embers and took turns traversing the embers. Some mar song sprinted across the mound while others took a leisurely stroll across the embers. I believe that some mar song went across three times. The entire procession across the embers lasted about 20 minutes.