each October on the island of Phuket
just off the western coast of the Thai
Peninsula a religious frenzy erupts it’s
called the vegetarian festival during
nine days
believers are purify their bodies by
restricting their diet to vegetables and
fruit and cleanse their spirits through
ritual but a few will offer their own
flesh up to the gods G heat is a 22 year
old construction worker who lives on the
island of Phuket Thailand during the
festival he will endure one of the
world’s extreme tests of faith by
becoming a medium or spirit servant
before I became a servant I didn’t
believe in this kind of thing at all
then I experienced it on my own legend
has it that the festival started in the
19th century after a miracle occurred a
Chinese opera troupe entertaining
Mineworkers became deathly ill to fight
the illness they embraced a strict
vegetarian diet and followed Taoist
rituals of painful self-mutilation to
the amazement of the local community
they were cured
ever since the vegetarian festival has
continued the practices they introduced
spirit servants called ma song or
entranced horses sacrificed their bodies
to purge the community of bad luck and
evil in Phuket one doesn’t choose to
become a spirit servant you’re either
picked by the gods or touched by illness
41 year old go shank has been a servant
for 22 years it began when I was taken
ill we went to the hospital and the
doctors checked me for everything and
they couldn’t find anything wrong with
me I was nauseous had a headache and
dizzy so the family brought me to pray
here at the shrine a minute I left I
felt better
all the fever and symptoms disappeared
soon after go Shang dreamed that a God
had called on him to be a spirit servant
he has been one ever since as night
descends believers congregate around the
temple and shrines laden with idols
representing the gods but a few have
prepared themselves for the unimaginable
to become possessed taken by the spear
watching quietly g’d and go Sheng also
wait to be possessed when you start to
feel bloated that is when the spirit is
slowly entering your body you feel it
and you know that something strange must
be happening when he is inside your body
you feel very big and know it starts
from your feet and when it gets to your
chest you are already all numb
Chameli your eyes will be hazed you can
see some and not see some then suddenly
you just lose consciousness in a trance
g’d rushes to the altar where chaperones
prepare and dressing then he joins the
crowd in trance
one spirit servant after another takes a
ceremonial ax and begins to cut his back
they believe that by hurting themselves
they are healing others the spirit
servants are absorbing evil and hurt on
behalf of the people the MA song will
allow their cheeks ears necks and
tongues to be pierced with metal rods
g’d seems oblivious to cane skewers
pierce his body the plastic fireworks
cymbals and drums drives away evil
spirits from the procession as the
procession comes to hang and arrive the
fireworks weeks leading the others at
the temple gate still in a trance my
song must have the skewers and rods
removed from their bodies amazingly
there are no screams of agony in the
remaining days of the vegetarian
festival there will be more trials for
g’d in the other spirit servants fire
walking boiling oil and climbing toward
the heavens on a ladder of sharp blades
further tests of their faith
also the people are cleansed of evil and
renewed for another year
just off the western coast of the Thai
Peninsula a religious frenzy erupts it’s
called the vegetarian festival during
nine days
believers are purify their bodies by
restricting their diet to vegetables and
fruit and cleanse their spirits through
ritual but a few will offer their own
flesh up to the gods G heat is a 22 year
old construction worker who lives on the
island of Phuket Thailand during the
festival he will endure one of the
world’s extreme tests of faith by
becoming a medium or spirit servant
before I became a servant I didn’t
believe in this kind of thing at all
then I experienced it on my own legend
has it that the festival started in the
19th century after a miracle occurred a
Chinese opera troupe entertaining
Mineworkers became deathly ill to fight
the illness they embraced a strict
vegetarian diet and followed Taoist
rituals of painful self-mutilation to
the amazement of the local community
they were cured
ever since the vegetarian festival has
continued the practices they introduced
spirit servants called ma song or
entranced horses sacrificed their bodies
to purge the community of bad luck and
evil in Phuket one doesn’t choose to
become a spirit servant you’re either
picked by the gods or touched by illness
41 year old go shank has been a servant
for 22 years it began when I was taken
ill we went to the hospital and the
doctors checked me for everything and
they couldn’t find anything wrong with
me I was nauseous had a headache and
dizzy so the family brought me to pray
here at the shrine a minute I left I
felt better
all the fever and symptoms disappeared
soon after go Shang dreamed that a God
had called on him to be a spirit servant
he has been one ever since as night
descends believers congregate around the
temple and shrines laden with idols
representing the gods but a few have
prepared themselves for the unimaginable
to become possessed taken by the spear
watching quietly g’d and go Sheng also
wait to be possessed when you start to
feel bloated that is when the spirit is
slowly entering your body you feel it
and you know that something strange must
be happening when he is inside your body
you feel very big and know it starts
from your feet and when it gets to your
chest you are already all numb
Chameli your eyes will be hazed you can
see some and not see some then suddenly
you just lose consciousness in a trance
g’d rushes to the altar where chaperones
prepare and dressing then he joins the
crowd in trance
one spirit servant after another takes a
ceremonial ax and begins to cut his back
they believe that by hurting themselves
they are healing others the spirit
servants are absorbing evil and hurt on
behalf of the people the MA song will
allow their cheeks ears necks and
tongues to be pierced with metal rods
g’d seems oblivious to cane skewers
pierce his body the plastic fireworks
cymbals and drums drives away evil
spirits from the procession as the
procession comes to hang and arrive the
fireworks weeks leading the others at
the temple gate still in a trance my
song must have the skewers and rods
removed from their bodies amazingly
there are no screams of agony in the
remaining days of the vegetarian
festival there will be more trials for
g’d in the other spirit servants fire
walking boiling oil and climbing toward
the heavens on a ladder of sharp blades
further tests of their faith
also the people are cleansed of evil and
renewed for another year
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