Phuket vegetarian festival, veggie rocks

This Phuket festival is about veggie rocks and body piercing extreme something real strange happens

beside of the vegetarian food sold at small stalls everywhere on the island. What is really interesting and what people makes to come to the island to watch is body piercing extreme as you can see at the pics below.

A walk on fire, actually glowing coals

and the attempt to climb up a ladder whose steps are razor sharp knifes, an extreme test of courage as it also needs to climb down at the other side again. Most try to make a few steps and then make it back down very slowly.

All this is centered at a few Chinese temples

from where the procession moves every day from one temple to the next and so on. The festival starts on the first day of the ninth month according to the Chinese lunar calendar, that means in late September or start of October.

When the devotees "the soldier of god"

move from one temple to another spectators line the street and firecrackers plus smoke are everywhere, a incredible noise. But the real bizarre stuff is with what kind of materials the devotees pierce themselves. There is tongue piercing, piercings in the mouth region and full body piercings it's amazing what they push through their skin, it doesn't look like a festival rather as a gathering of masochists.