Every August, Phuket Town fills with incense smoke, offerings of food set out on tables in the street, and stacks of bright red cakes shaped like turtles. This is Por Tor, the Hungry Ghost Festival, and it is one of the most distinctive things about the island that most visitors never notice. It is not staged for tourists, which is precisely what makes it worth understanding.
What Por Tor is
Por Tor is observed by Phuket’s Hokkien Chinese community, whose ancestors came to the island generations ago to work the tin mines and who have shaped Phuket Town ever since. It falls in the seventh lunar month, a period when, by tradition, the gates of the underworld are opened and the spirits of the dead return to the world of the living.
Families lay out elaborate offerings of food, flowers, candles and incense for their own ancestors. They also make offerings to the wandering spirits who have no family to feed them, those who died suddenly or far from home. That second act of generosity, feeding somebody else’s forgotten dead, is the heart of the festival and the thing that gives it its quiet dignity.
When it falls
Por Tor follows the Chinese lunar calendar, beginning in the seventh lunar month and running for several weeks, with a main ceremony day at its centre. In the Western calendar that usually places it in August, occasionally reaching into early September, on dates that shift each year.
In 2026, Por Tor runs from 19 August to 6 September, with the main ceremony day on Thursday 27 August.
The red turtle cakes
The most recognisable sight of the festival is the ang ku, a sticky rice cake filled with sweet bean paste, dyed a vivid red and pressed into the shape of a turtle. They appear everywhere during Por Tor, stacked in pyramids at shrines and markets, some of them enormous.
Both the colour and the shape carry meaning. Red is the colour of good fortune, and the turtle is a symbol of long life, so offering one is a wish for longevity passed between the living and the dead. If you would like to watch them being made, the shrine kitchens in Phuket Town prepare them in their hundreds in the days beforehand, and the smell of steaming rice carries down the street.
Where to see it
The centre of the festival is Por Tor Kong shrine in Phuket Town, also known as Seng Tek Bel, which observes the festival across several days and nights while most shrines mark only one or two. The fresh market on Ranong Road and the surrounding old town streets are busy throughout, and shrines across the island hold their own ceremonies.
Phuket Town is at its most atmospheric in the evening during Por Tor, when the offerings are lit and the shophouse streets fill with smoke and candlelight. Parking is difficult near the main shrine, so walking in from the old town is easier.
Attending respectfully
This is the important part. Por Tor is not a tourist event. The people you will see are local families performing a serious annual duty to their dead, and visitors are welcome as observers rather than participants.
Nobody will stop you watching or photographing the public ceremonies, but ask before photographing individuals, do not step over or disturb offerings, and keep back from the ritual areas. Dress modestly at the shrines. If you buy an ang ku from a market stall, you are supporting the tradition rather than intruding on it, and they are very good.
Visiting during Por Tor
August sits in Phuket’s green season, when the island is at its most verdant and rates are at their gentlest, so it is a rewarding time to come for reasons beyond the festival itself. Phuket Town is around forty minutes from the west coast beaches, which makes an evening at the shrines an easy excursion from a quiet base by the sea.
Kata Rocks sits on the cliffs above Kata Beach, with oceanfront villas looking out over the Andaman Sea, and our team can help you plan an evening in the old town during the festival. Details of what we are marking through the year sit with our events and celebrations.