Vegetarian Festival in Bangkok

Vegetarian Festival 2026: about 10–18 October in Bangkok, the first nine days of the ninth Chinese lunar month. Listings for 2026 give these dates; check local announcements, as some events start a day or two early.

For nine days each year, Bangkok's Chinatown turns yellow. During the Vegetarian Festival (thetsakan kin jay), many Thai-Chinese Bangkokians give up meat, fish, dairy and other animal products, along with strong-smelling vegetables like garlic and onion, as an act of merit and purification. Yaowarat Road fills with stalls selling jay food under yellow flags, and the shrines along it are busy with worshippers dressed in white.

This page covers the Bangkok festival. Phuket's festival on the same dates is a different event, known for its street processions and acts of self-mortification; Bangkok's is about food.

What to look for

• Yellow flags with red Thai lettering — เจ (jay). They mark stalls and restaurants selling festival food that is free of meat, fish, eggs, dairy, garlic and onion. Outside the festival, the same flags mark jay restaurants all year.
• Mock meat everywhere: imitation pork, duck, shrimp and fish made from soy, wheat gluten and mushrooms, cooked into familiar Thai and Chinese dishes.
• Worshippers in white at the Chinese shrines and temples, especially Wat Mangkon Kamalawat on Charoen Krung Road.
• Supermarkets and chains join in — convenience stores and food courts across the city sell jay dishes during the festival.

What to eat

Almost any familiar dish can turn up in a jay version:

• Stir-fries like pad kra pao made with mock meat or tofu.
• Noodle soups with clear vegetable broth.
• Steamed buns and dumplings filled with vegetables or taro.
• Curries without shrimp paste or fish sauce.
• Fried snacks — spring rolls, tofu, vegetable fritters.
• Chinese-style sweets and desserts, many already plant-based.

Jay food is often coloured yellow on signs and menus too, so look for yellow lettering as well as flags.

Where to go in Bangkok

• Yaowarat Road and its side streets are the centre of the festival, with the densest concentration of stalls from late afternoon into the evening. See the Chinatown guide.
• Around Wat Mangkon Kamalawat (MRT Wat Mangkon) for the religious side of the festival.
• Any neighbourhood market — look for yellow flags.

Tips

• Go in the evening, when Yaowarat is at its busiest; weekends are the most crowded.
• Not all stalls switch. Normal street food carries on alongside the festival stalls, so look for the flag if you want to eat jay.
• "Vegetarian" means stricter than you might expect — but mock-meat dishes can be heavy on oil, salt and sugar, and some contain allergens like soy and gluten.
• Wear white if you want to join in; it's not expected of visitors.

If you're vegetarian outside the festival

The yellow flag is still the most useful thing to know. For phrases and how to avoid fish sauce, see the dietary section of Bangkok street food.

• Bangkok Chinatown (Yaowarat)Chinatown is two places: a hectic wholesale district by day and one of the world's great street-food streets by night. Plan for both.
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