A crowd of people are in a trance. Some run out screaming wildly and try to make their way towards the temple where the monks are reciting mantras. Cutting into a human shield of soldiers and police, they fall to their knees, squirming and screaming. This is how the Sak Yant magic tattoo festival, Wak Khru, takes place in Thailand.
Sak Yant tradition
Sak Yant is an ancient tradition that originated in southwest China and an area of the modern state of Laos. Sak Yant is done by monks with special mystical powers, for protection or to give the owner of the tattoo supernatural powers.
We have a detailed article on what is Sak Yant magic tattoos with basic designs and meaning.
Where and when the Sak Yant festival?
Every year, more than 10,000 people gather in the Bangkok suburb of Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple to charge their Sak Yant tattoos with mystical energy. The temple is an hour’s drive from Bangkok. The Sak Yant Festival takes place in March (and sometimes February) and the exact dates vary every year as they are determined by the lunar calendar.
Many pilgrims come to the Sak Yant tattoo festival. The traffic the day before and the day after the festival is very heavy. It can be extremely difficult to find a parking space, so plan your journey with the traffic on these days in mind.
Traditionally, the Sak Yant festival lasts for one night and the day following. Many people spend the night right in the temple and sleep on the floor, and there will also be prasad – consecrated food prepared by monks and volunteers and distributed free of charge to everyone at the temple.
Wai Khru Ceremony
The Wai Khru ceremony is an ancient ritual that comes from Vedic culture, the purpose of which is to pay homage to a teacher. Wai khru is performed annually in Thai schools, it is also common among followers of martial arts schools, dance schools and other teachings that are passed down the chain of succession. It is also believed that Yant applied by a master gradually loses its power, it needs to be renewed periodically. For this purpose, all followers of the tradition gather every year at the main centre of Sak Yant at Wat Bang Phra temple.
The Sak Yant festival takes place during the night and the following day. During the night, monks stuff the yant and during the day, the main ceremony takes place in the square on the temple grounds. In the morning, people are seated on the floor to recite prayers and mantras with the teachers of the tradition. The monks are in the temple at this point and the recitation of their mantras is broadcast over loudspeakers.
Trans Khong Khuen
During the ceremony, close to noon, some people in the square begin to go into a trance: screaming, hissing, crawling. These people reincarnate into the powers that are contained in their yant. Some become tigers, some become Hanuman (the ancient god of monkeys), snakes, birds, old men. Thais are very superstitious and take such rituals very closely.
People who have entered a special trance state called Khong Khuen try to break into the temple, to the monks, but they are held back by soldiers and volunteers. To bring people back to reality, their ears are twisted and rubbed. At first only a few of the crowd try to run to the temple, but as the ritual progresses, there are more and more of them in a trance. Towards the very end of the Wai Khru ceremony, there are hundreds of people in trance, all moving towards the square.
The whole thing really looks like a mass psychosis, as there are hundreds, maybe thousands of people in trance, under the influence of mystical forces.
After the ritual is over, the monks sprinkle everyone with holy water. Sak Yant’s mystical tattoos are charged for another year.
