Phuket Vegetarian Festival begins as 350 personnel deployed
The Phuket Vegetarian Festival’s rituals began on 9 October, with security stepped up ahead of the nine-day event running from 10 to 18 October.
Phuket’s annual Vegetarian Festival began with Go Teng poles raised at shrines across the island on 9 October, while authorities deployed 350 police and agency personnel ahead of the expected crowds.
At Jui Tui Tao Bo Keng Shrine in Phuket Town, Vice Governor Romdon Hayiawae presided over the pole-raising ceremony at 5pm. The ritual marked the formal start of festival observances before the main period, which runs from 10 to 18 October.
Large numbers of devotees and members of the public, many dressed in white, attended the ceremony to witness the invocation of the nine celestial lamps. In local Chinese religious tradition, the Go Teng pole acts as a beacon inviting deities to descend and reside at the shrine during the festival.
Similar ceremonies were held at shrines across Phuket. The festival, known locally as Jia Chai, centres on abstaining from harming living beings, observing religious precepts and purifying body, speech and mind.
Security preparations involve 41 shrines, 44 regional government units, more than 100 central government agencies and 19 local administrative organisations. Authorities have also seized 3,049 fireworks and firecrackers, according to the festival preparations reported by The Phuket News.
