Sak Yant is an age old ritual that dates back to more than 2000 years. Some of you might be familiar with one of its more famous, celebrity followers - Angelina Jolie.
Sak Yant involves tattooing of Buddhist scriptures and/or diagrams onto the body. The tattoos are believed to be magical and bestow mystical powers, protection, or good luck for the wearers - as long as they observe certain rules.
Some Sak Yant followers get enchanted and enter into a trance whence they experience visions of the Yants that they wear, upon chanting of scriptures by venerables/Ajarns. This is temporary and afflicts mainly wearers of strong Yants depicting deities and holy creatures whereupon the afflicted may mimic the behaviours of the associated Yants. Moreover, most afflicted followers consider this a blessing and affirmation and actively condition themselves accordingly.
These images are records of my first close encounters with sak yant trance during an annual Wai Khru ceremony for Ajarn Meuk with hundreds of devotees in attendance. In my attempt to share the intensity of the moments, I sought to get up close and personal. This resulted in some extremely close shaves where the pouncing entranced came within mere inches of my camera!
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Ajarn Meuk performing the "crowning blessing" for one of his followers during Wai Khru ceremonies
A follower in trance is reined and assisted by a guardian disciple while Ajarn Meuk and others look on in the background
A follower in trance is assisted by fellow disciples to minimise any sudden movements and to calm him down
A follower in trance is held by fellow disciples to prevent accidental injury to himself
A follower with Monkey God yant can be seen scaling a tree in the background while another follower in trance is closely assisted
An entranced follower being assisted by fellow disciples
An entranced follower flails and grabs as she was being assisted by fellow disciples
An entranced follower being calmed by fellow disciples
An entranced female follower being assisted by fellow sister disciple
Fellow sister disciples attempts to restrain another springing entranced devotee
Fellow sister disciples stand-by ready to assist an entranced female follower
Fellow disciples stand-by ready to assist an entranced follower
Fellow sister disciples stand-by ready to assist an entranced female follower as others look on cautiously
An entranced female follower being assisted by fellow sister disciples
A follower in trance is caught by by fellow disciples as he lunges to prevent accidental injury to himself
Strangers to the sight may be understandably alarmed. However, most followers are calmly accepting
Here, another entranced devotee is being caught by smiling assistants in mid-air in his lunge
A male disciple alerts nearby female followers for assistance as the female disciple next to him enters trance
The female disciple in trance lunges as a female disciple attempts to hold her
Her sudden and powerful lunge brought her within mere inches of me and my camera
The same entrance female follower as I managed to put some distance between us
Other followers join in to attempt to calm and bring the entranced disciples out of trance
Venturing closer to another entranced female follower
Managed to step to the side and avoided her lunging grab
Fellow sister disciples gather jokingly around an entranced female follower after successfully restraining and calming her down
Twin power! Twin brothers (and followers of Ajarn Meuk) holds an entranced follower as he springs and flails
