Cheek-Piercing Thai Taoist Festival Returns

Devotees in Thailand's Phuket Island resumed a week-long sacred ritual carried out during the annual vegetarian festival after a long hiatus and events being scaled back due to the coronavirus outbreak in 2020.

Worshippers from the local Chinese community have their faces pierced or walked over hot coals at local shrines in the name of purification.

Some with their faces pierced with sharp objects say the meaning of the piercing is a symbol of the sinful things they might have said during the off-vegetarian season.

Devotees said that after the procession is done, they do not feel pain but like they have done their part to pay respect to the gods and goddesses they worship.

(Reuters)

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