The Phuket Vegetarian Festival (Jia Chai): dates, rituals and what the sources say

The Phuket Vegetarian Festival is a nine-day festival of Phuket's Thai-Chinese Hokkien community, observed from the first to the ninth night of the waxing moon by the Chinese calendar; the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) says it is known locally as Jia Chai. Its public side is a series of shrine ceremonies and street processions, and TAT places the processions in Phuket City, the city municipality XTOUR lists as Phuket Town.[1] Because the date follows the Chinese lunar calendar it moves each year: TAT listed Phuket's festival on 21 to 29 October in 2025[3] and on 10 to 18 October in 2026.[2]

What the festival is

TAT's 2026 release describes a festival that brings visitors into Phuket's Hokkien Chinese traditions through shrine ceremonies, street processions and community observances, passed down through generations of Phuket's Thai-Chinese Hokkien community.[1] TAT's feature writers place it within the wider Taoist celebrations for the Nine Emperor Gods.[4][5] The same release says Thailand's Department of Cultural Promotion listed the Phuket Vegetarian Festival as intangible cultural heritage in 2018.[1] XTOUR could not open the department's own pages on 9 October 2026, so that listing is attributed to TAT.

The Thai name for the practice is kin che. The Royal Society's dictionary defines it as keeping the precepts in the Chinese or Vietnamese way by eating only vegetables and no meat, and defines che food as food prepared without meat or certain vegetables, such as garlic, Chinese chives and coriander.[6] A 2025 TAT feature lists the abstentions slightly differently, as meat, poultry, seafood, dairy and pungent vegetables such as garlic and onions, and says participants wear white.[4]

One year's programme: TAT's 2026 release

TAT's release of 6 October 2026 sets out the programme for one year, published before that year's festival began. The dates below are 2026 dates, given as an example, and XTOUR has not checked whether each event took place as announced; each year's programme has its own dates and TAT announces it separately.

• 10 to 18 October 2026. The festival period, at Chinese shrines across Phuket and at the Jui Tui Tao Bo Keng Shrine, in TAT's nationwide list.[2]
• 11 to 18 October 2026. In TAT's description, Iw Keng street processions were to carry the Nine Emperor Gods through Phuket City to bestow blessings, with residents preparing altars outside their homes as flags, ceremonial signs and palanquins pass.[1]
• Sunday 11 October 2026. TAT said the Ham Si Iw Keng night procession would bring together more than 40 shrines in Phuket City and move through the municipal area after a prayer ceremony.[1]
• Sunday 18 October 2026, the last day. TAT described farewell rituals for the Jade Emperor and the Nine Emperor Gods. In its words the Jade Emperor "is traditionally sent back to heaven at around 22.30 Hrs.", followed by the farewell to the Nine Emperor Gods towards Saphan Hin; it named Thalang Road, Phuket Road and Surin Circle as routes where crowds gather.[1]

The release also names two rituals without giving them dates: the Koi Han bridge-crossing ritual, associated with cleansing misfortune and marked by the seal of the Nine Emperor Gods, and the Koi Hoi fire-walking ritual, observed as an act of spiritual purification.[1] XTOUR has not read a shrine's own schedule for either.

The rituals, and how to read them

TAT's 2026 release calls the night procession a display of faith, ritual and community tradition.[1] TAT's features describe the spirit mediums, called ma song, who in a trance pierce their cheeks, walk over hot coals or climb ladders of blades; the 2025 feature explains the belief that the gods possess the mediums and protect them while they take on suffering for the community's good fortune.[4] TAT's 2026 release for Phuket does not mention these acts, and XTOUR describes them only so that a visitor knows they are part of what the processions may include.

On the bridge-crossing, TAT's 2015 feature describes the ritual at the Bang Neow shrine on Phuket Road on the final day: men and women cross a low bench symbolising a bridge of purification and have their white shirts stamped in red. The same feature, written for a general readership, suggests wearing white so as not to stand out.[5] XTOUR has not read any shrine's or the municipality's own guidance for visitors, on dress, photography or anything else, and states none.

Where TAT's own accounts differ

TAT has written about the festival for more than a decade, and its pages do not always agree. XTOUR reports the differences rather than choosing between them.

• Length. The 2026 Phuket release calls it a nine-day festival;[1] the 2015 feature calls it a "10-day event";[5] the 2025 nationwide release speaks of a "nine- to ten-day period".[3] The listings in TAT's 2026 nationwide list range from 12 to 17 October, for Trang's shrine-by-shrine programme, to 8 to 19 October, for a shrine at Khlong Hae in Hat Yai.[2]
• Origins. The 2015 feature says the tradition "supposedly began in 1825" and tells a legend of a visiting Chinese opera troupe;[5] the 2025 feature says it originated in the 19th century among Chinese tin miners.[4] The 2026 release gives no founding date.[1]
• Where the gods are sent off. The 2026 release says the farewell to the Nine Emperor Gods goes towards Saphan Hin;[1] the 2015 feature says the statues are paraded to Phuket Bay so that the gods can return to the sea.[5] XTOUR has not read a source that relates the two.
• Spelling. TAT writes Iw Keng for Phuket's processions and Ing Keng for the spirit-medium procession in Nakhon Ratchasima.[2][1]

Not only Phuket

TAT's 2026 nationwide list shows the same season observed elsewhere, mostly on overlapping dates: a nine-day festival at the Tai Sia Huk Jow Shrine in Bangkok on 10 to 18 October, festivals in Trang and Hat Yai, and a programme in Nakhon Ratchasima with its own Koi Han ceremony on 15 October.[2] The 2025 feature, in its writer's own view, says Hat Yai's festival often emphasises commerce and cultural display over extreme rituals.[4] For Thailand's national festivals and how their dates are set, see Songkran, Loy Krathong and Yi Peng explained.

Phuket Town and Phuket island

TAT places the processions in Phuket City and its municipal area, and lists events at Chinese shrines across Phuket.[2][1] XTOUR keeps the two apart: Phuket Town is the city, and Phuket is the island, which also holds the beach resorts. A base elsewhere on the island is not a base in the town, and XTOUR publishes no travel times between them.

What XTOUR does not know

XTOUR has not read a schedule from the Jui Tui shrine, any other shrine, the Phuket City Municipality or the province, so it does not give times beyond those TAT published, procession routes, road closures, or visitor rules on dress, photography or conduct. It publishes no crowd, safety, noise, accommodation or price information for the festival. For the dates of a future year, check the TAT Newsroom, which published the 2026 Phuket release four days before the festival began.