Bangkok Guru

If you’re now in Bangkok and have been out to get some food, chances are you have come across loads of bright yellow triangular flags with some Chinese writing on them in front of many restaurants and food stalls. Yes, the popular Vegetarian Festival is back and in full swing once again. It’s a huge annual festival observed mainly by Thais of Chinese ancestry.

Bangkok’s Vegetarian Festival is held during late September and early October and lasts precisely nine days. The Festival is a celebration of the traditional Chinese belief that if you abstain from meat consumption and any other stimulant during this time of the lunar calendar, you will enjoy better health as well as sheer bliss.

Locally known as ‘Kin Jay’ กินเจ, the Vegetarian Festival is in fact a time of complete abstinence and purification of the body and soul. To observe this festival properly, you must stop eating not only meat and its derivatives e.g. milk and eggs but also celery, garlic, onions and some spices that are horrendously pungent.

At this time during the Kin Jay festival, quite a few ascetics (nutters) also perform such apparent miraculous feats as body piercing, walking on burning fire etc. They sometimes pierce their cheeks with sharp objects like knives, skewers etc. You might like to check these out yourself but be particularly careful if you are of the faint hearted type.

Are you taking part in the festival? Any good veggie dishes you think are worth sharing with us? Please let us know. Thanks!