“The Nine Emperor Gods Festival is a nine-day Taoist celebration beginning on the eve of 9th lunar month of the Chinese calendar, which is observed primarily in Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and also the Riau Islands. In Thailand, this festival is called Tesagan Gin Je, the Vegetarian Festival. It is celebrated throughout the entire country, but the festivities are at their height in Phuket, where about 35% of the population is Chinese. It attracts crowds of spectators because of many of the unusual religious rituals that are performed”. – Wikipedia. Photo: A devotee gest pierced at the Bang Neow shrine in Phuket. (Photo by Paula Bronstein)

A girl competes during a Hobby horsing competition in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Sunday, April 21, 2024. Several dozen kids, 48 girls and one boy, from first-graders to teenagers gathered in a gymnasium in northern St. Petersburg, Russia's second largest city, for a hobby horsing competition. (Photo by Dmitri Lovetsky/AP Photo)

A Pakistani scavenger girl writes on a notebook she collected from a garbage, while another girl sits next to her in Lahore, Pakistan, Wednesday, April 1, 2015. Thousands of children pick recyclable items from waste dumping points to earn living for their poor families. (Photo by K. M. Chaudary/AP Photo)

Fat Jew makes his entrance at the first birthday party for White Girl Rosé hosted by Elite Daily at The Dream Downtown, Sunday, July 17, 2016, in New York. (Photo by Diane Bondareff/Invision for White Girl Rosé/AP Images)

Monster girl Crazy Sa-ya, an iconic Harajuku girl and a staff member of the cafe, wearing a face mask poses for a photograph at Kawaii Monster Cafe, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan on January 31, 2021. (Photo by Issei Kato/Reuters)

A young girl dressed as living goddess Kumari drinks juice as she waits for Kumari Puja, a worship ritual at Hanuman Dhoka, Basantapur Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday, September 27, 2023. Girls under the age of nine gathered for the tradition of worshiping young prepubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy. The ritual holds a strong religious significance in the Newar community that seeks divine blessings to save small girls from diseases and bad luck in the years to come. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

Mosha, the elephant that was injured by a landmine, has her prosthetic leg attached at the Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation in Lampang, Thailand, June 29, 2016. Mosha was 7 months old when she stepped on a land mine near Thailand’s border with Myanmar and lost a front leg. That was a decade ago... (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)

Two styles of cleaned bird's nest, Yan Zhan (L) and Su Zhan (R) await repacking at a processing plant in Kuala Lumpur, February 17, 2015. Prized in China for is alleged health benefits for hundreds of years, nests made from swiftlets' saliva are being mixed into coffee and cereal as the Southeast Asian producers of the delicacy seek to broaden its appeal, and their profit margins. The nests are among the world's most expensive foods, selling for up to $2,500 a kg and the swiftlets that weave them are indigenous to Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. (Photo by Olivia Harris/Reuters)