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Bridge-Crossing Ritual at Bang Liao Shrine
Local culture
Free entry
Crowded
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Family
Sun, 18 October · from 16:00
Phuket Town time (UTC+7)
Bang Liao Shrine
Phuket Town
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Thailand · Phuket · Phuket Town
About the event
In the afternoon, a ritual bridge is set up at Bang Liao Shrine: devotees cross it to leave their misfortune behind, and at the far end a medium stamps the red seal of the Nine Emperor Gods on the back of their shirts. By custom people come in white and bring a paper figure cut to their own outline; the time follows TAT's schedule and may shift.
From the editors
Bang Liao (Bang Niew) Tao Bo Keng Shrine has been revered since 1904; local lore says the Chinese opera troupe Kang Chay Hi started the vegetarian rites here. The Phuket Vegetarian Festival (Jia Chai) is the nine-day Taoist festival of the Nine Emperor Gods: those who keep it dress in white, give up meat and hold vows of purification, while 39 shrines across the island hold their own rites. Crossing the bridge is believed to cleanse a person of impurities and of misfortune that might come their way; the red seal on the back shows they have been purified.