I can never get enough of this event. Here’s another festival that I’ve been top multiple times and always come away leaving with mixed emotions. What did I actually see? Spirits entering a person’s body, an exorcism, a spiritual cleansing? Was it the mind over coming pain? Or was this a farce, a spectacular event put on just for local and foreigners. I imagine it’s a little bit of all the above. Thousands come to Phuket, Thailand’s premier island, to witness the unthinkable.
The Thai-Chinese in Phuket have long passed on the vegetarian festival to purify mind and soul by refraining from meat consumption and meditating. Symbolising the presence of the deities throughout the festival are 9 lanterns lit up and placed aloft on Ko Teng poles. On the 6th day of the festival, there are religious processions and incredible displays of face-and-body piercing. On the last day, a “Koi Han” ceremony to exorcize ill fortune and a farewell ceremony for the deities at night.
The Vegetarian Festival sets the bar high for all other wild, wacky and bizarre festivals in the world.
I’ve uploaded these images and more into my Phuket Vegetarian Photoshelter Gallery:
When asked what is the most popular festival celebrated in Japan is, one that comes to mind is the Asakusa Shrine is Sanja Matsuri. As an annual celebration held on the third weekend of May, Sanja Matsuri festival is held to honor the three men that established Sensoji – Hinokuma Hamanari, Hinokuma Takenari and Hajino Nakatomo. Large scale parades, traditional music, dances, Geisha shows and taiko performances are among the activities lined up over three days. I’ve been to the festival 3 times while in Japan. It never fails. Despite it’s originally a religious festival, Sanja Matsuri is celebrated in a loose manner, so the streets are busy with giant crowds and perpetual loud music.
Everyone is having good time and challenges between the neighborhoods, each with it’s own Matsuri, are really exciting to watch. It’s like a dance, a perpetual wave of motion, up and down, side to side. The Matsuri’s are carried around each neighborhood for 3 days. On the final day the Matsuri’s are carried to the Asakusa Shrine at night for a religious spell bounding finale. I leave the shrine close to midnight exhausted.
Some Matsuris weigh several tons. I have a small one at home in a glass case. Matsuri are the fabric of Japan festivals.
A rare vantage point to capture the procession entering the shrine.
Everyone wants to carry or touch the Matsuri.
More images can be found at my Photoshelter Gallery:
The Tenjin Festival is a spectacular boat festival held at the Osaka Tenman-guu Shrine in Osaka. Millions attend this epic event, known as one of the three great festivals of Japan, and also as the greatest boat festival in the world. It reflects Osaka’s mercantile, canal-centric history as Japan’s “city of water.” The Tenjin Matsuri’s history reaches back 1,000 years, and is dedicated to Sugawara-no-Michizane, who is enshrined and worshipped as the Tenman Tenjin, the god of learning and the arts. Needless to say, it is an important time for Osakans, and is a huge part of Osakan culture.
Some 3000 people dressed in gorgeous traditional imperial-court style of the 8th-12th Centuries march in a parade on the festival day of 25 July. Led by a portable shrine (mikoshi) housing the enshrined Sugawara no Michizane, the land procession (rikutogyo) heads towards the Nakanoshima area. At Tenjimbashi Bridge, the participants board some 100 boats for the boat procession (funatogyo), the climax of the festival. At dusk, the boats with countless torches and lanterns proceed from the Hokonagashi Bridge on the Dojimagawa River to Enokoshima, creating a spectacular pageant that passes in front of spectators and reflects beautifully on the water. The festival ends in the evening with a grand display of over 1000 magnificent fireworks (hanabi), marking a festival of fire and water. Other events include traditional Japanese performing arts such as kagura music, bunraku and Noh theatrical performances.
More images can be found at my Photoshelter Gallery:
The Surin Elephant Round-up usually takes place on the third weekend of November in Surin province, Isan, Thailand.
Thai’s descend on this place by every conceivable means of transport – buffalo, rickshaw, pedicar, lorry, van, car, motor cycle , some even by elephant, – there is seemingly no limit to the mode of transport used. People come from the far ends of the Kingdom even foreigners pour in bus and train loads from the likes of Bangkok and Chiang Mai. They all come to see what Asia’s largest animal – the lovable elephant – can do and they rarely go away disappointed.
The Thai people hold the giant, grey elephant in great esteem, especially the festival participants many of where are from the village of Tai Klong, which is around 40km north of Surin. The Asian elephant is slightly larger than the African one but the Thais even believe the shape of their country resembles the head of the elephant.
One of my favorite cultural festivals is the Bo Sang Umbrella Festivaljust outside of Chiang MaiThailand to be held on January 21– 23, 2005. Watch hundreds of pretty local girls holding umbrellas in a very colorful parade followed by a beauty pageant. Bo Sang Umbrella Village is located nine kilometers east of Chiang Mai on the Chiang Mai – Sankampaeng Road. As part of the ancient Lanna Kingdom, the village has its own unique character demonstrated by its beautiful temples, fertile rice fields, traditional Northern houses, and by the simple way of life of its villagers. The whole handicraft village is beautified with Sa paper umbrellas, flowers and other handicrafts. Umbrella makers and painters hold competitions where you can see the best at work. Bo Sang umbrellas and parasols are now renowned worldwide as artistic masterpieces, as confirmed by winning the “Best Souvenir” prize at the International Tourism Seminar held in Los Angeles, USA.
Besides events related to umbrella-making, there are many other contests, exhibitions, cultural performances, local entertainment, and a variety of shows day and night. There is a grand procession of parasols and local products, a variety of handicrafts for sale, northern-style “Khan Toke” meals, and the not-to- be-missed Miss Bo Sang pageant. The festival is as much for local people as for visitors. Don’t miss it.
Last month while strolling around OmotesandoI decided to check out Meiji Shrineand by accident walked into a beautiful Japanese cultural ceremony. The shrine was crowded with people, but mostly with young children. The girl’s were dressed in beautiful kimonos with dangling decorations and flowers. Some boy’s wore traditional Japanese clothes while some wore suits. What was going on? The children stayed close to their families. Many of them took pictures, both with the child alone and together with different family members.
I later found out that Mid-November marks a very special time for children all over Japan: Shichigosan, which means “Seven Five and Three†which is a coming-of-age ceremony for children everywhere, when they dress up in kimono or haori jackets and go visit a Shinto shrine with their families.
On this day, prayers are offered for the healthy and happy futures of the children with large-scale coming-of-age ceremonies being held in all parts of Japan. These ages in particular are celebrated both because these years are seen as important age markers in the stages of a child’s growth and because odd numbers are seen as signs of good luck in Japan.
I spent the better part the afternoon photographing the children who were more than happy to pose. It was their day to shine in their best dress. Â More photos of the Shichi-Go-San festival can be found on Flickrhere.
If you like candles placed in colorful paper lanterns, fireworks, beautiful girls in traditional dress, parade floats, lots of food, and parties, then go see the Loy Krathong festival.  Loy Krathong has an unequalled charm and mystique, whether it is celebrated on a grand scale in a major city or quietly in a small village of just a few rude huts, but for a truly cultural experience, one of the best places in Thailand to spend Loy Krathong is easily the ancient former capital Sukhothai.
The Sukhothai Loy Krathongis a three-day celebration includes Thai performing arts, music, Muay Thai demonstrations and parades. There’s a display of traditional Thai fireworks and the whole thing ends with Krathong floats being set adrift in the pools and ponds within the Sukhothai Historical Park.
Loy Krathong is conceived as a renowned festival in Thailand. The word “Loy” means to float and “Krathong” is a banana leaf cup made of natural materials such as a banana trunk, banana leaves and lotus petals. It is laden with a candle, incense sticks, flowers and coins to ensure an auspicious life. People will flock to the river and then make a wish before drifting their Krathong onto the river. The floating of Krathong is intended to banish all sufferings and ask for apologies to the Goddess of the River in contaminating her waters. Some believe that the ritual is meant to worship the Buddha’s footprint on the bank of the Narmada River whilst others say that it is to pay respect to Phra Uppakhut, one of the Lord Buddha’s great disciples.
Loy Krathong is as always commemorated nationwide during 31 October – 6 November in a different manner especially in Sukhothai, Ayudhya, Chiang Mai, Tak and Bangkok. I found the most interesting aspect of the festival to be the light and sound show, called the “Dawn of Happinessâ€, and the Miss Sukhothai Loy Krathong beauty contest.  Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, also celebrates Loy Krathong and is bigger and louder than other cities. Come to think of it I want to visit all these places in the future.
More images from the Loy Krathong Festival of Lights can be found on my Photoshelter site here.
Soul stirring, graceful, gorgeous – every region in Japan celebrates its own festivals and events in response to the transition of the four seasons. Called matsuri, festivals can be found almost everyday somewhere in Japan. Many festivals have their origin in Shinto and Buddhism, while other events, such as snow festivals and fireworks displays are held for pleasure.
One of the best Shinto festivals is the Grand Festival of Toshogu Shrine.  Toshogu shrines can be found throughout Japan. The most famous Toshouguis located in Nikko in Tochigi Prefecture, one of Japan’s most popular destinations. Nikko is unbelievably magnificent. One of the best areas in Japan that I’ve been to. The Toshogu Shrine is the main attraction of Nikko. The Shinto shrine is dedicated to the kami (spirit) of Ieyasu (d. 1616), who founded the Tokugawa Shogunate, a military dynasty that ruled Japan from 1603 to 1867.  To create a worthy shrine for the shogun, 15,000 craftsman worked for two years, using 2.5 million sheets of gold leaf. The enshrinement of Ieyasu’s spirit is reenacted twice each year, once in May and again in October, in theProcession of the Thousand Samurai Warriors. Nikko is also famous for the carving of the three wise monkey’s, hear no evil, speak no evil and see no evil.
So what’s so special about the the event?  Three portable shrines are carried from the ornate main shrine to the sacred place among the cedars called Otabisho.  They are escorted by the 1,000 samurai procession, made up of cavalry, warriors carrying guns with spear, and archers with bows and arrows. The scene is quite spectacular and almost epic.  It’s hard to imagine that this re-creation has been going on since the 17th century.
More events like these, such as the Kanda Matsuri, can be found on my Photoshelter site.
For some, the plaintive wail of theshakuhachi (Japanese Flute) typifies the sound of Japan. For others it may be the ethereal pluckings of the koto, but nothing sounds more like Japan than the thunder of the taiko drums.  ”Taiko” in general is often used to mean the relatively modern art of Japanese drum ensembles (kumi-daiko), but the word actually refers to the taiko drums themselves. Literally, taiko means “fat drum,” although there is a vast array of shapes and sizes of taiko. Within the last fifty years since kumi-daiko was created, it has seen phenomenal growth to the point where there are over 8,000 taiko groups in Japan by some counts.  I shoot many festival and cultural events here in Japan. At many of them you can always find a taiko or some other kind of drumming performance.  I’ve seen a few good performances at the Hachioji Matsuri, Fukuro Matsuri, and the Tachikawa Suwa Shrine Summer Festival along with many other images on my Photoshelter site.
Taiko drumming goes back to the earliest Japanese communities where it was a part of daily life and rituals. Its roots stem from the drums that priests played to banish evil spirits and farmers played to celebrate bountiful harvests. Samurai used to carry taiko into battle to bolster their courage while instilling fear in the hearts of their enemies. Taiko were also used to carry the prayers of the people to their gods.
Today, taiko has become a dynamic performance art form of musical drumming and choreographed movement based upon traditional Japanese styles and techniques. It’s loud, strenuous, and pulsating with adrenaline. Rooted in the heart and spirit of Japan, taiko lives today as an evolving art form that is permeating the world.
Kodo is probably the most famous elitetaiko drumming troupe based on Sado Island, Japan. They regularly tour Japan, Europe, and the United States. Many foreigners are learning taiko drumming these days.  Maybe it’s time to learn how to play the drums, except it must be taiko!
