![]() ![]() During the golden age of the Ayutthaya Kingdom (1351-1767 CE), warriors took to the battlefield clad in suea yant, or shirts covered in yant designs meant to protect them. While historians debate exactly when Thais began tatting up, the tradition is believed to be between one to two thousand years old, with the first concrete evidence dating to the time of King Naresuan Maharaj. “Sak yant was influenced by the Khmer language since around 1,200 years ago. “We use the ancient Khmer language in sak yant because Thailand was once a vassal state of the Angkor Empire,” Ajarn Neng Onnut, a renowned, Bangkok-based sak yant master who has tattooed Steven Segal and Brooke Shields, among other luminaries, told The Diplomat. The devotees leave, confident their tattoos have been sufficiently charged with magic again. As the festival concludes, the monks lead a prayer before the crowd rushes toward the stage to be blasted with holy water from a high-powered hose. Ī phalanx of soldiers and paramedics guard the temple shrine from the onslaught of tattooed devotees, bringing them out of the trance by rubbing their ears. Not even camera equipment is safe during this mayhem, which can be seen unfolding here. They have become possessed by their tattoos, which force them to embody the tigers, crocodiles, mythical Himapant animals, and Hindu gods depicted in the designs etched into their skin. One after another, devotees enter a trance state known as Khong Khuen (“magical force rising”), in which they jump, scream, and charge headlong, arms flailing, toward the front of the temple grounds where the monks sit and oversee the festival. What may sound sober takes a surprise turn as the energy of the crowd builds. MAGICAL TATTOOS SERIESStarting at the designated time of 9:39 am sharp, monks lead the rite with a series of prayers and incantations. MAGICAL TATTOOS SKINThose who make the pilgrimage to the temple hope to recharge the magic coursing through the sacred geometrical patterns and figures inked into their skin through a ceremony called Wai Kru (“paying respect to the teacher”). The participants enter the dusty temple grounds under the early morning sun for a heady festival revolving around a sacred tattoo tradition known as sak yant. Every year, usually in early March, more than 10,000 people flood into Wat Bang Phra, a Buddhist temple about 30 miles west of Bangkok famed for its magic tattoos and amulets. ![]()
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