Venue
Talat Yai, Mueang Phuket District, Phuket, Thailand
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Por Tor Hungry Ghost Festival, Phuket Old Town guide
Ang ku cakes and ghost offerings in Phuket.
In short
Por Tor runs through the seventh Chinese lunar month, usually August or early September, with each shrine confirming its programme closer to the time. In Phuket Old Town, Hokkien families lay out food for ancestors and wandering spirits, and red turtle-shaped cakes mark the season. It suits travellers curious about the island's Baba culture.
Por Tor is the hungry ghost festival of Phuket's Hokkien Chinese families, held in the seventh lunar month, when the underworld is believed to open. Shrines in Phuket Old Town fill with food for ancestors and for wandering spirits, and red turtle-shaped ang ku cakes become the emblem of the season.
For visitors it is one of the most direct ways into the island's Baba culture, a world of shophouse kitchens, family altars and Chinese opera that sits far from the beach resorts. Prayer and entertainment share the same streets. An elderly woman lighting incense for her grandparents may be standing a few metres from a lion dance troupe.
Outsiders are welcome as long as they keep to the etiquette of a working place of worship.
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Key Facts & Stats:
Ends: Thursday, 26 August 2027
Where: Phuket, Thailand
Venue: Phuket Old Town
Held: Every year
Type of event: Food Festivals, Cultural Events, Religious Festivals
Currency: Thai baht (฿ THB)
Time zone: UTC+7, no daylight saving
Language: Thai
Map
Getting around
Hotels near the venue fill up around the event dates.
Respecting the altars and offerings
These are active shrines, and the offerings on the street belong to someone's dead relatives.
- Cover shoulders and knees, and keep your voice low near the altars.
- Never step over, step on or move food, incense or paper money left on the pavement or in the road.
- Stand back from the burners while paper is being fed in; sparks travel.
- Ask before you photograph anyone at prayer, and skip the flash inside shrine halls.
- Let worshippers through first when the space in front of an image is crowded.
Buying turtle cakes to make an offering
Entry to the shrines is free, but bring baht in small notes. The stalls take cash only in practice, and the turtle cakes sold for offerings are paid for on the spot. If you would like to leave one, buy it near the shrine and ask a volunteer where it should go; placement matters to the families running the altar. Small palm-sized cakes are the usual choice for visitors. Leave the giant turtles to the associations that commission them.
Watching processions from the pavement
The processions are made up of schoolchildren and local families, not performers, and they are heading somewhere with offerings in their hands.
- Watch from the pavement edge, and stay out of the road for photos.
- Keep a bag in front of you in the dense stretches near the market.
- Children in cheongsam are a favourite subject; ask a parent first.
- Carry water. The streets trap heat well into the evening and shade is scarce at the shrines.
What happens on the day
- Days before the peak
Shrine rites begin
Seng Tek Bel holds its rites over seven days and nights, so any evening of that week finds incense burning there. Other shrines keep shorter observances on dates of their own.
- Peak day, from late morning
Market and offerings
The market on Ranong Road gets going first, and merit-making at the shrines begins around noon.
- Peak day, afternoon
Procession through the old town
Schoolchildren and families in traditional dress, many of the girls in red cheongsam, walk the old streets carrying fruit and cakes to the altars. The hour changes every year.
- Peak day, after dark
Prayers and burning
Evening prayers start, joss paper goes into the burners, and the lion dances, Chinese opera, cabaret and concert stages take over the market.
Etiquette and dress
Dress
Shrines are working places of worship. Shoulders and knees covered is the safe choice, and many local families wear red or traditional Baba dress on the main day.
Altars and offerings
Do not touch or take food from the altars, even after the prayers, unless a volunteer offers it to you. Never step over offerings laid on the ground or on low tables.
Incense and burners
Keep a careful distance from the incense pots and burners; they are crowded and very hot on the peak evening. If you light incense, ask a volunteer how many sticks to use and where to place them.
Processions
Let processions pass and do not cut through a line of people carrying offerings.
Staying in Phuket Old Town for the evening events
Por Tor happens in the evenings in Phuket Town, and visitors who stay out on the west coast tend to arrive after the processions have gone. Book at least two nights in the old quarter around the main day. Small hotels and guesthouses occupy restored shophouses across the old quarter, and from any of them the main shrine and the market are a few minutes on foot. The heritage zone is only ten streets deep. You will rarely need a ride.
Build the trip around the fifteenth day of the lunar month, when the offerings and the crowds peak. Spend the days before it at the beach, then move into town. Each shrine draws up its own programme and the procession times are normally released by TAT's Phuket branch a few weeks out, so pick a room with free cancellation and fix the details once the schedule appears. Plans for the rest of the island can start from our Phuket destination page.
August hotel rates in town stay lower than on the beaches. Ask for a room at the back, away from the generators and loudspeakers.
The festival's Hokkien roots and the red turtle cakes
Hokkien families from Fujian province carried this festival to Phuket during the tin rush of the nineteenth century. Many of the miners married Siamese women, and the community that grew from those marriages, the Baba, still keeps its own speech, clothing and cooking. The same families run the Vegetarian Festival a few weeks after Por Tor. In the seventh month, they hold, the gates of the underworld open and the dead walk among the living. Two groups must be fed: a family's own ancestors, and the hungry spirits with nobody left to remember them.
So the altars are piled high. Roast duck, fruit and flowers stand in front of the images, with stacks of joss paper that are burned as money and clothing for the spirits. Pride of place goes to ang ku, rice flour and sugar pressed into the shape of a turtle and dyed red. The turtle asks for long life. The red asks for luck. Most cakes fit in one hand, while the giants presented at Seng Tek Bel can run to tens of kilograms.
UNESCO gave Phuket the title of City of Gastronomy in 2015, and the evening stalls selling the island's Hokkien dishes beside the shrines show why.
Getting there
Flying in
Phuket International (HKT) is at Mai Khao, 32 km north of the town, with direct flights from Bangkok and across Asia and the Gulf, including Dubai to Phuket. Check entry rules on our Thailand visa page.
From the airport
A taxi takes about 30 minutes and costs roughly 500 baht; a shared minibus takes about 45 minutes for 100 baht. The government airport bus costs the same but needs about 1 hr 15 min and runs from the airport between 08:00 and 20:30.
In the old town
Walk. Festival parking is close to impossible and the sites are close together: start on Thalang Road, cross to Phuket Road for Seng Tek Bel, the shrine beside Bang Neow school, and finish at the fresh market on Ranong Road.
Back to the beaches
Blue songthaews leave Ranong Road by the Down Town Market; the Patong service runs every 30 minutes from 07:00 to 18:00 for 25 baht, too early for the evening rites. After dark, budget 200 to 400 baht for a taxi.
Where to stay during the festival
The hotel below, in Phuket itself, is the nearest one we list to Por Tor Hungry Ghost Festival, Phuket Old Town. The next edition runs from 8 August to 26 August 2027. Book as soon as your dates are fixed, since rooms close to the festival are the first to go.
Weather and what to pack
August is the south-west monsoon season in Phuket. The 1991 to 2020 normals give an average high of 32.2°C and a low of 25.6°C, with 308.7 mm of rain on about 17 days of the month.
Rain usually comes in short, heavy bursts, often in the afternoon or overnight, and evenings in the old town are warm and humid. The west-coast beaches carry red flags on rough days, which is another reason to spend the festival evenings in town.
Worth packing
- A compact umbrella or light rain jacket
- Clothes that cover shoulders and knees for the shrines
- Comfortable shoes for the old-town streets
- Insect repellent for the evenings
- Cash in small notes for food stalls and ang ku cakes
Car hire in Phuket
Airport transfer to Por Tor Hungry Ghost Festival, Phuket Old Town
Met at arrivals at Phuket International Airport (HKT) and driven door to door to Phuket Old Town.
- Phuket International Airport (HKT) → Phuket Old Town
- 31 km · 50 min
Restaurants and food in Thailand
Places to eat in Thailand before or after the celebrations.
Yamazato
24th floor, Park Ventures Ecoplex, 57 Wireless Road, Bangkok 10330
Cuisine:KaisekiEdomae sushi
- Dine-in
- Takeaway
- Delivery
Vertigo
61st Floor, Banyan Tree Bangkok, 21/100 South Sathorn Road, Thung Maha Mek, Sathon, Bangkok 10120, Thailand
Cuisine:GrillInternational
- Dine-in
- Outdoor seating
- Bar
Khao Soi Mae Sai
29/1 Ratchaphruek Road, Chang Phueak, Mueang Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai 50300, Thailand
Cuisine:Northern ThaiNoodles
- Dine-in
- Takeaway
Raya Restaurant
48/1 Dibuk Road, Talat Yai, Mueang Phuket District, Phuket 83000, Thailand
Cuisine:Southern ThaiPhuket
- Dine-in
- Takeaway
Sorn
56 Soi Sukhumvit 26, Khlong Tan, Khlong Toei, Bangkok 10110, Thailand
Cuisine:Southern ThaiFine dining
- Dine-in
Jay Fai
327 Maha Chai Road, Samran Rat, Phra Nakhon, Bangkok 10200, Thailand
Cuisine:ThaiStreet food
- Dine-in
- Takeaway
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
General
No. They are separate festivals, though the same Hokkien community organises both. Por Tor honours ancestors and wandering ghosts in the seventh lunar month, and the Vegetarian Festival follows a few weeks later with its own rituals and processions.
Yes. Buy a small ang ku from a stall near the shrine and ask one of the volunteers where to set it down. Nobody expects a large cake from a visitor, and the gesture is welcomed.
The turtle stands for a long life and the red colouring for good fortune, so the cake carries a wish for both to the ancestors and spirits who receive it.
He is the king of the underworld in local belief, the deity who lets the dead out during the seventh month. His shrine is the one beside Bang Neow school, and his name is what gives the whole festival its title.
Usually at Seng Tek Bel. Associations and families present the heaviest ang ku there, and some weigh tens of kilograms, which makes the shrine the first stop for anyone who wants to see one.
At the fresh market on Ranong Road the entertainment typically continues until around midnight on the main days, with Chinese opera, cabaret and concerts following the evening prayers.
Yes, on a smaller scale. Chinese shrines elsewhere on the island hold observances for a few days each, but the old town around Phuket Road and Ranong Road is where the festival is busiest.
Photographing the altars themselves is generally fine. People at prayer are different: ask first, keep a respectful distance and avoid flash inside the shrine buildings.
It stands in for money, clothes and goods sent to the dead. Burning it passes those gifts to the spirits, so it should be left alone wherever you see it.
Prices & payment
No. The shrines, the processions and the market shows are all free to attend. Money only comes into it if you buy food or an offering.