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While chasing away dangerous, wild elephants destroying his crops in what is now Patong, Yomding drove them over a headland (the site of today's Jomchang homes). Between the pounding of the charging elephants' feet and the slashing of Yomding's broad sword, the small island that forms one of the distinctive features of Jomchang was cut off from the main headland. If you look carefully, legend has it, you can see the cut marks where Yomding's sword hacked through the rocks in pursuit, a chase that continued on up the coast to Phang Nga, leaving other similarly altered landscape in its wake. But the legend of Yomding and Jomchang, while perhaps of more immediate interest to Jomchang residents, is just one of many fascinating tales, legends, slices of history and traditions that are the essence of the 'other' Phuket - the Phuket that is much more than the tourist brochure paradise. There are, for example, the two sisters, revered by Thais nationwide, who rallied the citizens of Phuket to repel a Burmese invasion. Thanks to them Phuket holds the possibility of Jomchang's exclusive lifestyle. Then there were the thousands of Chinese labourers who swarmed into Phuket to work the (now long-gone) tin mines and who stayed on to make a huge imprint on Phuket's distinct character - one stunning aspect of which is the 'Vegetarian Festival', which to the outsider seems to have little to do with vegetarianism, as local 'braves' indulge in the most fantastic displays of body piercing, fire- and knife-walking while in religious trances. Why...? These are just a few examples of the endless fascination the 'other' Phuket has in store for Jomchang residents. |
