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Sui Boon Tong Shrine Street Procession
Local culture
Free entry
Crowded
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Family
Sun, 18 October · from 07:00
Ban Talat Nua time (UTC+7)
Sui Boon Tong Shrine
Phuket Town
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Thailand · Phuket · Ban Talat Nua
About the event
In the morning, the deities of Sui Boon Tong Shrine are carried through the streets in palanquins, with the ma song in trance walking alongside, to drums and the constant crackle of firecrackers. Households along the route set up altars with candles, incense, flowers, fruit, sweets and tea, and the procession stops to bless them. The route is on TAT's map in the cover. Come in white, with earplugs and closed shoes; the time follows TAT's schedule and may shift.
From the editors
Sui Boon Tong (Aam Lor Rong) held its first festival in 1977; it was built as a place to cook and give out free festival food. 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. The street procession is the festival's most spectacular event: the gods are believed to bless people through the ma song, mediums in trance, which is why households greet it with altars. Never cut across a procession, and give way to the mediums.