The bizarre Nine Emperor Gods Festival in Phuket

Pagan **ceremonies **are expected to be bizarre, but it does not get weirder than the Nine Emperor Gods Festival. While it is nothing unusual for the devotees to torture their own mortal flash a bit, Chinese worshipers in **Phuket **do it with **exceptional **gusto and a definite artistic twist. Do they offer their suffering as a tribute to the **gods **or, to the contrary, demonstrate the power of their deities to make them immune to pain? Both, plus they show off, too. For nine days, the old town of **Phuket **turns into a **magic **war-like zone, with firecrackers blasting around like cascade fireballs, wounded warriors parading on the streets, pieces of sharp metal driven through their bodies, and mediums in colorful robes **blessing **the crowds. At night, **possessed **men climb the ladders of blades and run on hot coals. Taoist temples are overcrowded, and often look like field hospitals – this is where the priests pierce the cheeks, tongues and other body parts of anyone willing to express their devotion to the Nine Emperor Gods.

Gods in the night sky

The **gods **in question are, in fact, stars. At least, this is how they are usually perceived by us, mortals. Seven of them make up Ursa Major, and another two are nearby, within the same constellation, yet invisible to the naked eye – which makes one wonder how good ancient **Chinese **telescopes must have been. **Taoist **theologists claim they are celestial beings who **possess **power over life and death, while folk beliefs claim them to be the souls of the Ming Dynasty pirates, later deified, as it is common in **Chinese **myths. The worship of those nine **gods **has all but disappeared in progressively secular China, but the communities in South-East Asia continue to conduct **ceremonies **in their honor. Of those, the **festival **in Thailand is the grandest by far. The legend here says a **Chinese **theater troupe had landed in Phuket just as the city was plagued by a **terrifying **epidemic. Many actors had fallen sick and died until one of them finally decided to travel back to mainland China and invoke the **Nine Emperor Gods **to Phuket. Divine intervention then put an end to the outbreak. Since then, this **festival **takes place annually on the first days of the ninth month.

Vegetarian Festival

According to the beliefs of Thai **Chinese **diaspora, on those dates, the Nine Emperor Gods enter our realm using shrines as portals and **possess **the devotees. It seems **Phuket **attracts tourists even from other levels of existence. Humans willing to serve as ambulant units for divine vacations have to prepare themselves; gods are picky. "Ma song", such mediums are called, and the “ma” here stands for 马, “horse“, since they are ridden like faithful stallions by the celestial visitors. Both the ma song and anybody else taking an active part in the ceremonies, or hoping to catch a piece of the gods’ blessing, have to fast for the entire nine days. It includes abstaining from sex, lies, aggression, and maintaining a strict vegan diet. Hence the popular name for the event: Vegetarian Festival. It takes place in the first nine days of the ninth **Chinese **month, usually around Gregorian October. If you would like to see it, look for the exact dates on the Tourism Authority of Thailand's official website.

Self-mutilation

On the days of the Nine Emperor Gods Festival, **magic **is everywhere, and most of it is harmful for the user. Of course, it is a **blessing **that most people seek, and tables set up as altars line the streets, with **possessed **mediums stopping at each to conduct prayer. But, what catches the eye of a visitor is self-mutilation taken to an **exceptional **level. The creativity of it is bizarre, both **terrifying **and amusing – if an object has a prolonged end, it will end up piercing someone’s face. Spikes, spears, and swords are plentiful, but there are also people parading with palm fronds, umbrellas, toys, exhaust pipes, and musical instruments driven through their cheeks or tongues. The more exotic, the better – try a two-meter-long model of a sailing ship stuck into a guy’s face with its bowsprit. Fireworks blow up all over Phuket, and as if this weren’t hazardous enough, worshipers wrap strings of firecrackers around themselves and set them off, like in a suicide bombers’ training course. When the night falls, large beds of red-hot coals are prepared near the **temples **to walk on, and ladders made of sharp blades are erected for climbers. Most of the participants are ma song, already "possessed". The coals, of course, completely fail to singe them, and ladders are climbed without spilling a drop of blood. Even more surprisingly, wounds left by the extreme piercing heal in mere days and leave no scars.