tim in phuket - exploring Thailand (closed)

Shiva Lung - Ghost Festival

This is text written by Kevin O'Sheehan from a beautiful Asian Photo website.

The Shiva LungIn the Ghost festival, in Loei, the presence of the Shiva lung, or the representation of the male penis is omnipresent. Many of the dancers carry it as the 'krador'. Traditionally it represents the penis of the Lord Shiva, the source of all fertility for Hindus. This Hindu custom survives in all of these pre-monsoon fertility festivals of North-Eastern Thailand. Many of the 'kradors' are hinged with a trigger device, like this one, so they can be made to twitch in a most suggestive way during the dancing. In this culture such things are not objects of fear or prudery as they might be elsewhere.

Koh Samui Regatta (31st May - 5th June)

Not being a boating person I cannot add anything to this that you cannot ascertain from their website.

Pu sae Ya sae ceremony - May 27

This is certainly a ceremony NOT for the squeamish - I would like to see it.

This ceremony is at Mae Hia - a tambon in Muaeng Chiang Mai - and is named after 2 cannibalistic brothers whose spirits guarded Chiang Mai. Lawa and Northern Thai Legend tells us that the Lord Buddah persuaded (how I don't know) to give up being cannibals and the brothers agreed but for one day in the year they ate raw buffalo flesh once a year.

The ceremony is a mix of Shamanism and Buddhism and the medium involved speaks the words of the spirit Pu Sae and Ya Sea. In Chiang Mai a buffalo is ritually sacrificed and eaten by the medium. The information I have read about indicates that the innards are cooked and the medium sits on the buffalo carcass smoking and drinking. Other information indicates that it is cooked.........

This should be seen.