Sak Yant is a form of tattooing using Indian yantra designs. It consists of sacred geometrical, animal and deity design accompanied by Pali phrases, and are believed to bring spiritual and physical protection.
Over the centuries the tradition spread to what is now Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. While the tradition itself originates with indigenous tribal animism, it became closely tied to the Hindu-Buddhist concept of yantra or mystical geometric pattern used during meditation. Tattoo of yantra design were believed to hold magic power. For these people, religion in closely tied to the notion of magic, health, and good fortune.
Once a year, thousands of devotees from all over Thailand travel to the Wat Bang Phra temple, in Nakhon Phaton province, to take part in the Wai Khru, a Thai ceremony, which translated as " paying respect to the teacher ". The festival is attended by tattoo masters or " Arjans " and Buddhist monks, who tattoo all the people who want it. Thousand of faithful tattoo patrons from all corners of Thailand and elsewhere come to received new tattoos or have their old ones re-powered by the blessed monks living here.
During the main ceremony, some devotees go into trance, representing some of the animals that they have tattooed, and perform impromptu dances and ritual gestures. In this possessed state, people run around wildly, screaming and flailing violently as these wandering devotees rush the main stage at the temple to be blessed by monks prayers and blasted with holy water.
Tattooing tool resembles a sharp of 60 centimeters metal skewer split at one end of about 5 centimeters to form a needle-sharp pronged tips. These space created between the two needle tips acts as a reservoir to hold the tattoo pigment.
The ink that the monks use are personal recipes, and some are thought to have special " protective "qualities due to their unusual { and magical } ingredients. Some Arjans use sandalwood, steeped in herbs or white sesame oil. Oil extracted from wild animals such as elephants, in must, galls of tiger, bear and even cobra venom or the chin fat from a corpse are said to be used. Others mentioned that the exfoliated skin of a revered Arjan was added to Chinese ink mixed with holy water to make their tattoo pigments.
This group of images belongs to the photographic work that I have called Sak Yant. I wanted to show them separately because they are all moving images, and in themselves they already make up a series of documentary photographs with a creative vision. Sometimes the photographed subject moved, and I wanted to capture it that way, with the force of the movement, and other times it was the camera that moved following the devotees in trance and movements.
All the images have been taken during the Wai Khru ceremony, where the devotees going into trance, running, jumping, gesturing, dancing, etc... I was encouraged to take these creatives images where the movement reinforces the visual effect of the devotees in trance.
