GRAPHIC IMAGES: Devotees show their faith by puncturing their skin at the annual Phuket Vegetarian Festival

Swords, skewers and needles inserted in flesh are standard sights at the annual Phuket Vegetarian Festival .
The event offers an extreme showcase of those who show religious devotion through ritualistic self-mutilation and pain trials.

When participants aren't putting kebab skewers through their cheeks, some are running over hot coals just to show how authentic their faith is.

The Phuket Vegetarian Festival is an annual event held during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar.

It is believed that the vegetarian festival and its accompanying sacred rituals for the Nine Emperor Gods bestow good fortune upon those who religiously observe this rite.

Residents of Chinese ancestry strictly observe a 10-day vegetarian or vegan diet for the purposes of spiritual cleansing, and sacred rituals are performed at various Chinese shrines and temples.

As well as walking barefoot over hot coals, some attendees ascend ladders with bladed rungs.

The devotees, names 'Ma Song', or entranced horses, believe that gods enter them during the fest.

They manifest supernatural powers and perform self-tortures in order to shift evil from individuals onto themselves, and to bring the community good luck.

Throughout the festival fireworks and drums are sounded - the louder the better, because the noise drives away evil spirits.

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