Nine Emperor Gods Festival, Phuket · The Nine Days the Blades Go Through

The Nine Emperor Gods Festival on Phuket runs for nine days. Worshippers in white shirts and trousers keep the fast, and in the processions the spirit mediums pierce their own cheeks and tongues with blades and iron needles; it is said that with a deity in them they feel no pain.

The rite comes from a tradition that spread through the mining districts in the nineteenth century, kept at first to drive sickness off the miners.

What locals respect is the rules of those nine days: take no life, tell no lie, do not look back. When the procession passes a house, that house burns incense.

Folklore / Phuket · Thailand / Modern day