Also known as the Nine Emperor Gods Festival, the Phuket Vegetarian Festival is an annual Taoist event celebrated primarily by the Chinese community of Thailand (it is also celebrated elsewhere in South East Asia but not to the level of Thailand). Running for nine days, it is considered by many to be the most extreme and bizarre event in Southeast Asia.

Devotees must give up meat, sex, alcohol, stimulants, and strong foods such as gar-lic for the whole of the event. Most notably a select few participants practice self muti-lation in the form of piercing their cheeks with swords, walking on hot coals, and climb-ing ladders made of knife blades.