Phuket up! Religious devotees impale cheeks in Thai fest (Graphic photos)

[rug]

Revelers observe the annual vegetarian festival in Phuket, Thailand on September 30. (Reuters)

By Danika Fears
September 30, 2014 | 5:53pm

No pain, no gain!

As part of the annual Vegetarian Festival in the southern Thai town of Phuket, religious devotees inflict unimaginable on harm on themselves as a way of seeking purification.

One worshipper of the Chinese Jui Tui Shrine paraded in a street procession and was photographed on Sept. 30 with two drills piercing his cheeks.

The nine-day festival starts on the first evening of the ninth lunar month, and dozens of people critically injure themselves every year.

http://nypost.com/2014/09/30/phuket-up-religious-devotees-impale-cheeks-in-thailand-festival/

Here's a local link.

http://www.phuket.com/festival/vegetarian.htm

I'm trying to understand this but I'm getting nowhere. Seriously, the photos at the slideshow at the first link are worse.

[cbayer]

1. If the other pictures are worse than this, I'm not even

going to open the link.

[rug]

2. I don't get it. Do you?

I thought the flaggellants in the Phillippines were bad, but this? To promote vegetarianism?

[cbayer]

3. I don't pretend to understand it at all.

Perhaps, though, the link is that by harming oneself, one is reminded of the pain inflicted on animals when used for food.