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The Vegetarian Festival · Thailand

齋Kin Jay

Nine days. Yellow flags over the woks, no garlic, white clothes.

Tap the street.

10–18 Oct 2026 · 齋 · เจ
motdang.net/sites/kin-jay

10–18 Oct 2026

Nine days: what's on, where

Tap a lamp. The map flags where; the picture shows what.

9 Oct 2026Clean-out day (lang thong): strict keepers eat jay the day before, to start clean.
10–18 Oct 2026The nine days, 1st to 9th of the ninth Chinese month.
Night of 18 OctJay ends after midnight, into the 19th.
30 Sep–8 Oct 2027Next year, per Kapook's 2027 calendar.

Read the flag: 齋 · เจ

Hang the yellow flag and you are telling the street: nothing from an animal in this food. Chinese signs write 齋. Thai signs spell it เจ.

เจ on a shop sign, Yasothon
เจ on a shop sign, Yasothon · Pawyilee · Public domain
Jay duck and red-pork noodles on a yellow menu, Bangkok food court, 2014
Jay duck and red-pork noodles on a yellow menu, Bangkok food court, 2014 · Dahlfred · CC BY-SA 3.0
齋 in Western Zhou bronze script
齋 in Western Zhou bronze script · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
齋 in seal script, as in the Shuowen dictionary
齋 in seal script, as in the Shuowen dictionary · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain

Tap to replay.

Readingsjay in Thai, chai in Hokkien, zhāi in Mandarin, chay in Vietnamese; simplified Chinese 斋
Yellowonce kept for royalty and exorcists, so read as the colour of Buddhism and the precepts (Thai Wikipedia)
Redgood fortune
Whitewhat keepers wear

Jay or not? Cook it.

No meat, fish, egg, milk, honey, fish sauce or oyster sauce. No pungent five, either: that is the line between jay and vegetarian.

Tap ingredients into the wok.

Garlicกระเทียม
Onions of every kindหอม: spring onion, shallot, onion
Garlic chivesกุยช่าย
Chinese garlic, lak kiaoหลักเกียว, a small single-clove garlic
Tobacco leaf, or corianderdepending on whose list
AlsoNo alcohol. The strict cook in pots that have never held meat, keep the five precepts, keep their speech gentle and abstain from sex.

Eat jay in Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai

Tap a dot. Every place opens on Mot Dang.

Guan Im Dhamma Dan Foundation9–18 Oct 2026 · Mueang Samut Road, Chiang Mai

Rites led by Chinese monks from Wat Muen Puttha Mettakhunaram, Mae Chan. White clothes for the rites; 053-235-968.

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Thailand J Food Festival 20269–18 Oct 2026 · Central Chiang Mai and Central Chiang Mai Airport

Jay dishes, a J Market of more than twenty brands, and workshops.

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Pung Tao Kong Shrine2025: all nine days · by Warorot, Chiang Mai

Free jay meals at 11:00–12:00 and 16:00–17:00. No 2026 notice seen by 7 Oct.

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Warorot market2025 · Kad Luang, Chiang Mai

Yellow flags across the market; one jay stall cooked about twenty dishes a day at 35–40 baht a box.

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Kuang Meng Foundation free kitchen2025 · Mae Sai, Chiang Rai

A free jay kitchen, 11:30–14:00: rice, glass-noodle stir-fry, tofu soup, pumpkin curry, ginger and soy drinks.

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Jay food centre, Wiang2023 · Mueang Chiang Rai

Open 07:00–15:00 through the festival, meals at 30, 40 and 45 baht.

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Find a shrine or a jay kitchen

Shrine or jay hallJay or vegetarian kitchenMarket, mall, gurdwara, temple

Tap a dot.

Chiang Mai: shrines and halls

Chiang Mai: also

  • Warorot Market ตลาดวโรรสWarorot market. In 2025 yellow flags went up across it; one jay stall cooked about 20 dishes a day at 35–40 baht a box
  • Central Festival Chiang Mai เซ็นทรัล เฟสติวัล เชียงใหม่Central Chiang Mai, one of the malls named for Thailand J Food Festival 2026, 9–18 Oct
  • Central Plaza Chiang Mai Airport เซ็นทรัลพลาซ่า เชียงใหม่ แอร์พอร์ตCentral Chiang Mai Airport, one of the malls named for Thailand J Food Festival 2026, 9–18 Oct
  • Namdhari Gurudwara ChiangmaiThe Namdhari Sikh gurdwara, Chang Moi Road
  • Pikanesuan Dewali พิฆเนศวรเทวาลัยThe Ganesha Hindu temple, Charoen Prathet Road
  • Dev Mandir Chiang MaiHindu temple, Rattanakosin Road

Chiang Mai: jay kitchens

Chiang Rai: shrines and halls

Chiang Rai: jay kitchens

Chiang Rai: also

Festival hours can differ from the listing.

Go: festivals across Thailand

Strongest where Hokkien and Teochew Thais settled: Phuket, the Andaman coast, Trang, Hat Yai, Yaowarat, Korat.

Dawn at the shrine in Cherng Talay, Phuket
Dawn at the shrine in Cherng Talay, Phuket · Kirill Kay · CC BY-SA 3.0
Morning procession into Phuket Town
Morning procession into Phuket Town · Kirill Kay · CC BY-SA 3.0
Two ma song before the parade, Phuket
Two ma song before the parade, Phuket · Kirill Kay · CC BY-SA 3.0
A sedan carried through Phuket, 13 Oct 2010
A sedan carried through Phuket, 13 Oct 2010 · Roberto Trm · CC BY 2.0
Firecrackers over a procession, Phuket Town, 2011
Firecrackers over a procession, Phuket Town, 2011 · Joseph Ferris III · CC BY 2.0
Sedan through firecracker smoke, Krabi, 18 Oct 2023
Sedan through firecracker smoke, Krabi, 18 Oct 2023 · OraMAAG · CC BY 4.0
Phuket9–18 Oct 2026

The pole goes up 9 Oct at about 17:09; eight shrine processions, one a day, 11–18 Oct; fire-walking, the bridge-crossing and the send-off to the sea at Saphan Hin on the night of the 18th. On Thailand's national intangible-heritage list since 2018.

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Bangkok, Yaowarat9–18 Oct 2026

At the Yaowarat arch: jay food down both sides of the road, palanquins from 22 Yaowarat shrines, road closed 10 Oct 16:00–22:00 for the opening.

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Nakhon Ratchasima10–18 Oct 2026

The 20th year at the Thao Suranari monument; procession 13 Oct, the twelve-zodiac bridge 15 Oct at 19:19.

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Hat Yai, Songkhla9–18 Oct 2026

More than 108 jay food shops at Suan Yom Suphasan Rangsan; city procession 15 Oct; lion and dragon dances 15–16 Oct.

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Trang10–18 Oct 2026

Shrines across the province: charity kitchens, processions, fire-walking.

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Krabi10–18 Oct 2026

Shrine rites and jay kitchens in town; the gathering of jay keepers on Maha Rat Road, 14 Oct.

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Phang Nga10–18 Oct 2026

Nine shrines in nine days; procession 16 Oct.

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Nakhon SawanOctober

On the province's calendar at Na Pha shrine, Mueang.

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Nonthaburi9–18 Oct 2026

A jay festival at Outlet Square, Muang Thong Thani.

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Who eats jay

Shrine hallsโรงเจ · ศาลเจ้า · อ๊าม

They run the festival. Over a hundred Nine Emperor and Dou Mu temples in 20+ provinces, registered as charities.

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Mahayana monksจีนนิกาย · อนัมนิกาย

Chinese-lineage monks skip meat, egg, dairy and the pungent five. The Vietnamese-lineage Annam Nikaya: 27 temples, 3 monasteries.

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Santi Asokeสันติอโศก

Phra Bodhirak's movement, apart from the Sangha council since 1975. Strict vegetarian, one meal a day, 27 centres (2007), five in the north.

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Yiguandaoอนุตตรธรรม · 一貫道

A Chinese religion from 1800s Shandong. Vegetarian eating is a core teaching.

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Thai Plum Villageหมู่บ้านพลัม

Thich Nhat Hanh's monastery at Pak Chong. Every meal vegetarian.

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Sikh gurdwarasคุรุดวารา

About twenty in Thailand. Phahurat's Siri Guru Singh Sabha feeds anyone a free vegetarian breakfast; Chiang Mai's dates from 1907.

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Theravada laypeopleฆราวาส

A sizeable minority eat vegetarian, Thailand and Sri Lanka above all.

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Legends

Join the Dipper

Tap the seven stars in order, bowl to handle.

The nine starsdoctrine

The Nine Emperor Gods are the Big Dipper's seven stars plus two no one can see, sons of Dou Mu. Honour them, live longer.

The Thai telling: seven past Buddhas and two bodhisattvas, the nine planets.

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The opera troupe at Kathulocal tradition

Fever hits the tin mines of Kathu, Phuket. A Chinese opera troupe falls sick, blames its skipped vegetarian rites, keeps them, and recovers. The town follows.

1825, says the governor; 1827, says Thai Wikipedia; after 1855, says a Chula thesis.

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The Ming loyalistsfolk legend

White-clad fighters eat no meat or pungent plants, chant spells against Manchu guns, and lose. The festival remembers them.

A Huachiew study finds six versions across Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

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The nine princes of Jiangxifolk legend

A leper beggar at rich Li Huakai's gate orders nine days of jay to stop a coming disaster. Li obeys, the town follows, the disaster passes.

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Lao Seng's motherfolk legend

A drunk dreams of his dead mother: she is happy on Mount Putuo because she ate only jay. He sets out, breaks his vow on the road, and still finds her floating above the incense pot.

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Emperor Wu of Lianghistory

From 502 the Liang emperor eats one vegetarian meal a day and swaps the goats, pigs and cattle of the imperial sacrifice for animals moulded from flour.

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Devadatta's five rulesPali canon

Devadatta asks the Buddha to ban fish and meat for monks. The Buddha refuses; Devadatta splits the Sangha.

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Make tofu

Legend credits Liu An, grandson of the first Han emperor: salted soy broth for his sick mother set into curds.

Words

เจjay · 齋

Food with nothing from an animal and none of the five pungent plants; also the observance itself.

กินเจkin jay · 食齋

To keep jay. In Phuket the older word is chia chai, 'eat vegetables'.

ล้างท้องlang thong

The clean-out day before the nine days.

ออกเจok jay

Coming out of jay after the last night.

โรงเจrong jay

A jay hall: a Chinese religious hall with its own kitchen.

อ๊ามam · 庵

Phuket's word for a shrine.

โกเต้งko teng · 高燈

The tall lantern pole raised to begin the festival, carrying the nine lamps.

กิ๋วอ๋องไต่เต่kiu ong tai te · 九皇大帝

The Nine Emperor Gods.

ม้าทรงma song

A spirit medium, 'the horse the god rides'.

อิ้วเก้งiu keng · 游境

The procession that carries the gods through the streets.

โก้ยโห้ยkoi hoi

Fire-walking.

โก้ยห่านkoi han

Crossing the bridge: a rite of cleansing at the shrine.

ผักฉุนphak chun

The five pungent plants jay leaves out.

หมี่กึงmi kueng · 麵筋

Wheat gluten, the base of jay pork and duck.

โปรตีนเกษตรprotein kaset

Textured soy protein, dried in chunks.

ปิ่นโตpinto

A stacked tiffin carrier; shrine kitchens fill them during the festival.

Sources

Thailand: Natural Earth, public domain. Amphoe outlines: OCHA COD-AB Thailand, Royal Thai Survey Department, CC BY-IGO. Towns: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. Places: Mot Dang.