ABSTRACT
My study of ‘The Chinese Vegetarian Festival in Phuket’ (Cohen 2001) was based predominantly on research on the conduct of the festival in major Hokkien1 shrines on Phuket island, especially in the Ban Kathu shrine – where the festival is said to have originated – and in the two big shrines in Phuket town, Jui Tui and Bang Niao. The festival events in those shrines are large in scale and most spectacular, with their huge, colourful processions and hundreds of entranced spirit mediums performing a variety of stunning feats in the course of the festival cycle. These shrines also attract the greatest number of visitors, including many domestic and foreign tourists – among whom members of the Sino-Thai community in Thailand and of the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia have a significant presence.
