The vegetarian festival in Phuket is essentially a communion with the gods and holy spirits; but for the chosen ones it's time for sacrifice
KARNJANA KARNJANATAWE and ARTHUR JONRS DIONIO
The boy watching the parade covered his ears tight with his tiny hands to block off noise from firecrackers going off at random around him as statues of Chinese deities mounted on wooden platforms passed Phuket's main thoroughfare accompanied by the thundering of drums.
A German tourist video-taping the event he was observing first time was clearly awestruck watching the crowd cheer phalanxes of religious devotees escorting statues of deities engage in shocking acts of self-mutilation that are part and parcel of Phuket Vegetarian Festival.
When asked what he thought of the ritual, all he could say was "wonderful". That was last year. The festival, that begins on the first evening of the ninth lunar month and lasts nine days, runs September 26 to October 6 this year during which devotees will subject themselves to all sorts of pain and torture and abstain from from eating meat or drinking alcohol as part of rites meant to chase away evil spirits and bring good luck.
This year street processions run October 1-7. Each day there will be different groups of devotees, called ma song in Thai, joining the rites that start with the first rays of the sun and end about four hours later.
Ma song devotees operate in a state of trance. Possessed by spirits, they are insulated from pain they inflict upon themselves by piercing their cheeks, mouth, ear lobes, arms, tongue, eye lids or any other part of the body using metallic or wooden implements whetted especially for the occasion. These can be in the form of a knife, dagger, short spear, metal rods or sharp nails and pins.
Last year, one devotee was seen parading with a dagger entering one cheek and exiting the other, another had metal contraptions secured to his face and arms, yet another had his eye lids pinned down with sharp wooden pins, and so forth. Not to be outdone, women were in the fray too, with one of them walking around with a pair of daggers lodged in her mouth.
Implements used in this act of self-mutilation can take various forms, said a local student who is a regular at the festival, though not an active participant. One year, he said, he spotted a devotee from whose cheeks hung the hand grip of a large motorcycle. There is no limit on the choice of objects used in these rites: on view last year were a Japanese sword, a toy rifle, an electric lamp, replica of a ferry, a metal chain and a rod tipped with roses. Some devotees pounded their backs and foreheads with an axe, while another ran a knife through his tongue.
"It is like a competition," said Ladda, housekeeper at a hotel who had brought her 13-year-old daughter along to watch the procession, explaining that when it comes to choice of objects devotees from one temple try to outdo counterparts from other shrines by going for weirder choice of implements or weapons.
But this is a scared rite and the devotees are supposed to use this occasion to show off and try to outdo others.
"We urge them to only go for weapons used by Chinese gods as stated in our legend," said a spokesman of Bang Neow, a large Chinese shrine downtown.
"Those weapons, in fact, should not be longer than two metres," he said. "We always ask our devotees to follow the rule, but some of them always come up with weird choices.
"It is a bit sad to see that happen. We wish to keep as close to our tradition as possible," he added.
In the eyes of the audience, the ritual is painful no matter what implements are used - whether it is an eight inch-long needle, a dagger or sword. But ma song devotees do not feel anything while going through the motions.
"I feel nothing, no pain. It is like I am in my sleep and dreaming," said Ekapan, describing his feelings before his initiation at a shrine from which he would emergence in a trance before joining his ma song colleagues on the street.
Ma song practitioners see themselves as the chosen ones because they are men sent with a purpose, and the purpose is to make sacrifices for others. For example, there was this student Joe, who came perilously close to death when still young.
"I was very sick when I was 13. My parents were afraid that I might die so they took me to Jui Tui, another big Chinese shrine downtown, and prayed for my recovery," he said.
"Soon after that my health began to imporove. When I recovered my parents told me to devote myself to god and become a devotee." For 10 years Joe, now a university student, has been a ma song devoted to Chinese child god Naja.
On procession days, devotees head to shrines in their respective communities before dawn. Each day the procession features devotees from different shrines.
Last year, Ekapan left his home at 4am and walked to Bang Neow shrine where he changed into white pants and wore nothing on top. He then lit three incense sticks and began praying. After a time his body was shaking, head bending back and forth, left and right while his pupils dilated as he entered a state of trance. Two men helped him don an apron, then presented him with a set of weapons from which he chose eight-inch-long metal strips and was then led to a seat.
One assistant helped sanitise his weapon while the other massaged his right cheek. He was now ready to make sacrifice. One assistant then pierced his cheeks gently with the strips that went from side and exited at the other end. A drop of tear welled up in Ekapan's right eye. The other assistant used a black flag painted with Chinese characters to cover his face and wipe his tear.
When done, Ekapan's face was a patchwork of more than 10 metal strips, ready to join the procession. He walked out the main gate of the shrine close on the heels of the statue of his deity, followed by friends and supporters.
On Phuket's main street, people of ages clad in white waited in queues several kilometres long. They were told to squat and wai as the devotees walked past.
Many households had set aside tables laden with fruit, candies and small cups of Chinese tea for the devotees and invited them to come and bless their families, rid them of bad luck or misfortune.
Stopping at the tables the devotees normally drank tea, occasionally serving the brew to owners of the house, seen as a gesture of blessing. But they always took the candies with them which they gave away to people along the way waiting for good luck.
Sometimes a devotee made a long stop at a house to perform rites during which he pounded his back with an axe, or repeatedly slashed at his tongue with a sword, to drive away evil spirits and bad luck.
The procession lasted around four hours. When it was over, the devotees returned to their shrine to surrender their implements. One by one they paid their respects to their gods by twice banging with their palms on a table laden with incense pots and various offerings.
Then they threw themselves backward into the arms of their supporters, signalling their emergence from the trance, with teams of nurses at the ready waiting to attend to their wounds.
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