Blood and blades as Thailand celebrates vegetarian festival: ‘body needs to be pierced’

Soon after sunrise on the Thai island of Phuket, a swordsman chants an incantation and slowly slides the first of three blades through the right cheek of the woman sitting calmly below him.

Soon, blood is dripping off her face, and red-stained tissues are scattered over the ground.

The ceremony at the October 2-11 vegetarian festival in Phuket’s old town aims to cleanse “sinful” souls. Sirinnicha Thampradit, 29, is believed to be a medium that a god has selected to bridge the connection between human and divine.

“I felt weak, I felt numb and I couldn’t control anything,” Sirinnicha, who woke before dawn to prepare for the ceremony, told AFP.

“One minute I was crying, another I was laughing,” she said, adding that possession usually happens during the annual vegetarian festival.

Despite the blood, Sirinnicha, who has a 1.5-inch scar visible on both cheeks from her previous piercings, said she felt no pain during the procedure.