Phuket’s Hilal Town Halal Food Festival
Stunning costumes are a hallmark of the annual performance of the Tale of Princess Mahsuri.
Go back 300 years or so, and most of the people living on Phuket were Muslims of Malay extraction. Even today, about 30 percent of the island’s population are Sunni Muslim, and preserve Islamic traditions.
These traditions are celebrated annually in the Hilal Town Halal Food Festival, this year at Saphan Hin (on the southeast edge of Phuket Town) from April 30 to May 3.
Hilal is Arabic for “the full moon”, while Halal Food is food prepared according to Islamic rules. So – no pork, no alcohol, but stacks of great food, including some of the hottest curries you’ll ever come across. If your tongue can’t manage half a ton of chilies in one go, try the gaeng massaman (Muslim curry) – potatoes and chicken or goat meat in a rich coconut gravy (okay, it’s got chilies too, but just a handful).
For a buzz, get some of the local coffee. You can’t miss the people selling it – they mix it by pouring it from one jug held high overhead into another at waist level, with not a drop spilled. It’s strong.
The festival features stalls selling all sorts of good stuff – batiks, embroidered headscarves, and a raft of souvenirs.
Masters of batik create colourful works at the festival.
There are also stage shows showcasing Muslim music and dancing, and culminating in the annual performance of the Tale of Princess Mahsuri, about a Malay princess from Phuket, in the early 1800s, who married a prince of Langkawi. Wrongly accused of adultery, she was sentenced to death. When she sentenced to death. She swore that she was innocent and that, if her blood touched the ground, Langkawi would see neither peace nor prosperity for seven generations.
When she was stabbed, her blood flowed out white, not red, a sign of her innocence. Her curse pretty much came true. It was not until very recently that Langkawi, with its quiet beaches and bays, saw any kind of prosperity, with money invseted by the Malaysian government and tourism dollars coming in from passing yachts.
The lavish performance, featuring stunning costumes, features Sirintra Yayee in the role of the princess. She is believed to be a seventh-generation descendant of the original Princess Mahsuri.
