SAARI NEWS: phuket

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<b>Phuket (Thailand): Walking on fire or driving a brace of swords through your cheeks may not be activities most commonly associated with vegetarianism. But for participants of one Thai festival it’s the height of religious devotion.<span id="more-288539"></span>
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Thailand’s nine-day Vegetarian Festival in the tourist island of Phuket is a spectacular — and bloody — Chinese Taoist procession in which devotees purify themselves in public displays of self-mutilation.</div>
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“It is not a trick, it is real, real bodies,” said Chanchai Doungjit, director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand in Phuket.</div>
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“It is believed that pure men can walk on fire without getting burned,” he said.</div>
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Thousands of people, almost all dressed in white, lined the procession route on Thursday to pay their respects and receive blessings.</div>
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Mediums taking part — the majority of them men — eschew meat for several months before the festival, which began on October 5 and will finish on Sunday.</div>
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These participants believe they become possessed by spirits and, imbued with the power of otherworldly beings, are able to skewer their bodies and faces with a variety of imaginative implements, including guns, guitars and garden umbrellas.</div>
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The aim is to rid the area of evil spirits and thus bring good fortune to local communities.</div>
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“Even children can watch it,” said Chanchai, but added that “they might find it frightening and might wonder why the mediums have to torture themselves”.</div>
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The Vegetarian Festival honours Chinese gods and is thought to have begun in 1825 in Phuket, which has a sizeable ethnic Chinese population.</div>
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A devotee of the Chinese Bang Neow Shrine with his cheeks pierced by metal rods waits for the start of a street procession during the annual Vegetarian Festival in the southern Thai town of Phuket</div>
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During the festival, celebrants refrain from vice and maintain a vegetarian diet.</div>
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Pregnant women are forbidden to watch any of the rituals because they are considered impure.</div>
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The purification festival attracts some 100,000 people, according to the tourism authority.</div>
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Half of those visiting the festival tend to be Thais from nearby provinces, with a further 40 percent from other Asian nations and 10 percent from countries further afield like Russia and Australia.</div>
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“Phuket has the biggest vegetarian festival in the country,” said Chanchai, adding that some 600 million baht ($19 million) is spent by visitors in Phuket province during the festivities.</div>
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Before the procession, the mediums put themselves into a trance and began leaping through the temple before being escorted to an area for facial piercing.</div>
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As their eyes rolled back in apparent pain, a white-gloved assistant inserted a large spike into their cheeks until he made a hole big enough to insert the desired object to be placed through the face — from model boats to the more conventional swords.</div>
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Dozens of mediums then filed out into the streets, accompanied by helpers to wipe away blood and saliva and carry the heavier loads.</div>
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Other groups of devotees carrying idols were also part of the procession.</div>
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These icons were the target for thousands of firecrackers thrown from the watching crowds, in a continuous barrage of explosions that filled the street with thick smoke.</div>
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<b>AFP</b></div>
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Self-mutilation for virtue in bloody Thai festival

Phuket (Thailand): Walking on fire or driving a brace of swords through your cheeks may not be activities most commonly associated with ...