Kathu Shrine ศาลเจ้ากะทู้

Kathu Shrine (Nai Tu Dtao Bu Geng) 
ศาลเจ้ากะทู้  (ศาลเจ้าในทูเต้าบู้เก้ง - อ๊ามฉ้ายตึ้ง) 

As the story goes........ In 1810 (BE:2353) after the expansion of the tin mining industry, creating a shortage of labour, Chinese coolies were  employed in various areas of Phuket including  Tung Ka and Nai Tu  (Kathu in present times). Due to the large number of labourers, a small town started to develop with various services including coffee shops, pharmacies, brothels, gambling houses, opium dens, Chinese theatre, puppet shows and other entertainments.  After one of the visiting theatre groups had been taken down with a fever, they decided to hold a vegetarian ceremony at the theatre on the first day of the ninth lunar moon of 1880 (BE2423). Soon after their sickness disappeared and the local people became curious to learn more about the ritual. Before the theatre group left the theatre for the New Year Celebrations, they gave two wooden carvings of their gods, Lao Yia and Lee Lo Chia to the locals so that they could hold the same ceremony in the following year and also suggested a visit to China to study the rituals of the ceremony in full. 

September 2011 Repairs are under way.

The local Chinese community of Nai Tu continued to hold the annual ceremony in the converted theatre house, that became known as Ahm Chai Dteung and collected enough money to send an envoy to China.  After two or three years the envoy had not returned and the people of Nai Tu thought that they had been fooled, however on the seventh day of the ninth lunar month during the vegetarian festival, news of the envoy's return reached the villagers so they went in procession to meet him at the port of Bang Niow. With him he had brought the various important items to include in the ceremony, so they carried them back in a procession to Nai Tu to the shrine. From that day onwards the villagers continued to hold the ritual every year and have done so up until present times. 

September 2011 Repairs are under way.

Over the years the shrine 'Chai Dteung' began to deteriorate and so the local people rebuilt it in the location that Kathu Shrine stands today. The building was simple with a grass roof and three doors with a Chinese theatre in front. The Shrine was then rebuilt in 1947 (BE2490) and again in 1993 (BE2536) with a new Vegetarian House being built shortly after. Kathu Shrine remains to be an important part of the Phuket Vegetarian Festival, even though the festival now centers around Jui Dtui Shrine. 

ภาษา ไทย
http://www.phuketvegetarian.com/phuketvegatarian-knowhow/history.htm and http://www.somboon.info/wizContent.asp?wizConID=455&txtmMenu_ID=7

Note: The Story of the Vegetarian Festival varies from one publication to another, probably as it has been passed on from one generation to another. Therefore there may be some incorrect information given on this page for which I apologise. Any comments or additions are welcome by email to dawninphuket@live.com.