Phi Ta Khon: festival from Thailand

Phi Ta Khon is a three-day festival held in Dan Sai, in the Loei province of Isan, Thailand. Local people parade in tall masks built from palm-leaf sheaths and woven sticky-rice baskets, dance through the streets, launch rockets for rain, and end with Buddhist sermons.

When is Phi Ta Khon kept?

Phi Ta Khon is kept on once a year for three days, on dates chosen each year by local spirit mediums, usually in late June or early July.

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Every year the town of Dan Sai, in Thailand's Loei province, gives itself over to Phi Ta Khon, a three-day festival of masked processions. People make tall ghost masks from palm-leaf sheaths topped with woven sticky-rice baskets, paint them, and dance through the streets in patchwork clothes hung with bells. The days are also a Buddhist merit-making occasion, when villagers ask for protection, hear sermons, and mark the start of the rains.

What it is

Phi Ta Khon is a festival kept in Dan Sai district, in Loei province, part of the Isan region of Thailand. It runs for three days. The whole occasion is known as Bun Luang and belongs to a wider Buddhist merit-making holiday called Bun Phawet, or assembly day. The most visible part is the procession of masked figures. Masks are made from the lower part, or sheath, of thick palm-leaf stems, with bamboo baskets meant for steaming sticky rice stitched on top. The dates are not fixed by a calendar alone: each year local spirit mediums choose them.

Masks and dress

A Phi Ta Khon mask begins with the sheath of a thick palm-leaf stem. A bamboo basket of the kind used for steaming sticky rice is sewn onto the top, forming the crown. Makers then paint the surface in detailed patterns and attach a carved wooden nose and pieces that stand out like ears. The people who wear them dress in loose shirts and trousers pieced together from many colours. Strings of small bells hang from the back of each belt, so the dancers sound as they move. Some carry large carved wooden phalluses and use them to tease the crowd.

Origins and meaning

Where the masked procession comes from is told through a story. Local tradition traces it to the Vessantara Jataka, a tale of the Buddha in an earlier life. As a prince he set out on a long journey, and those left behind believed he had died. When he came home the welcome was so noisy that, in the telling, even the dead were woken. A local belief about place runs beside this. The people of Dan Sai ask for the protection of Phra U-pakut, a spirit linked with the Mun river.

How the days run

The days do not all look alike. The first opens with games and a procession of masked figures, after the town has asked for protection. The middle day takes in parts of the Rocket Festival: rockets are fired to ask for rain and a good harvest, dancers and dressmakers compete, and further processions follow. On the last day the villagers sit and listen to sermons given by Buddhist monks. Everything belongs to the merit-making season, so the fun sits beside religious observance.

Today and change

The festival now draws visitors from elsewhere in Thailand and from other countries, not only people from Dan Sai. One set piece, the Two Big Ghosts, belongs to Dan Sai alone: two very tall ghost costumes lead the ceremonial walk around Wat Phon Chai temple. That temple also houses the Phi Ta Khon Dan Sai Museum, where old masks and outfits are displayed and the history is explained. Mask-making workshops have grown popular, letting visitors make their own masks with the usual materials. Some residents see the event as both a religious observance and an attraction that keeps changing.

How Phi Ta Khon is kept

Local spirit mediums fix the three days each year. The first day begins with the town asking Phra U-pakut for protection; games follow, then the masked procession moves through the streets. The middle day borrows from the Rocket Festival: rockets go up to ask for rain and a good harvest, crowds watch dancing and prize-giving for costumes, and the processions grow longer. The Two Big Ghosts, two towering costumes unique to Dan Sai, lead the walk around Wat Phon Chai temple. On the last day, monks give sermons and villagers listen.

When and where

The festival runs for three days once a year, on dates between March and July that local spirit mediums choose annually; in practice it usually falls in late June or early July, in the rainy season. No fixed calendar day applies, so the exact dates differ from year to year.

It is kept in Dan Sai district, in Loei province, in the Isan region of north-eastern Thailand. Dan Sai town is its home and the centre of the celebrations, and the procession circles Wat Phon Chai temple there. Visitors come from Bangkok, elsewhere in Thailand and abroad, but the festival belongs to Dan Sai.

What Phi Ta Khon means

For the people of Dan Sai the masked days carry more than spectacle. They sit inside Bun Phawet, a merit-making time, and the noise, colour and clowning are offered as part of that. Asking Phra U-pakut to protect the town belongs to local belief about the Mun river and the land around it. The rockets fired mid-festival speak of rain and a harvest to come. The old story of the prince's homecoming gives the noise a meaning: joy loud enough to reach the dead.

Questions people ask about Phi Ta Khon

When is Phi Ta Khon kept?

Phi Ta Khon is kept on once a year for three days, on dates chosen each year by local spirit mediums, usually in late June or early July.

What is Phi Ta Khon?

It is a three-day festival in Dan Sai, in Thailand's Loei province, best known for processions of people wearing tall masks made from palm-leaf sheaths and bamboo sticky-rice baskets. It is also a Buddhist merit-making occasion called Bun Luang, part of the wider Bun Phawet holiday.

Where does it take place?

In Dan Sai district, Loei province, in the Isan region of north-eastern Thailand. The masked procession moves through the town, and one highlight, the Two Big Ghosts, leads a ceremonial walk around Wat Phon Chai temple, which also holds a museum of masks.

What do the masks look like?

Each starts with the sheath of a thick palm-leaf stem. A steaming basket for sticky rice is stitched on top as the crown. Artists paint the surface, add a carved wooden nose and ear-like pieces, and dancers wear patchwork clothes with bells strung at the back of their belts.

Why do people dress as ghosts?

Local tradition ties the masked merrymaking to the Vessantara Jataka, the story of the Buddha in an earlier life as a prince. He returned from a long journey after being presumed dead, and the welcome was loud enough to wake the dead, so the festival keeps that joy.

Good reading and sources

Where this page comes from

The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Phi Ta Khon", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). EveryParampara rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.

Phi Ta Khon

When is Phi Ta Khon kept?

What it is

Masks and dress

Origins and meaning

How the days run

Today and change

How Phi Ta Khon is kept

When and where

What Phi Ta Khon means

Questions people ask about Phi Ta Khon

See also

Good reading and sources

More from Thailand

The same idea elsewhere

Photo credits on this page

The weekly EveryParampara