Thailand's traditional monkey festival has begun again after being suspended for nearly two years because of the Covid pandemic, with local residents and tourists taking part. The festival in Lopburi is held mainly to attract thousands of local and foreign tourists, and its main attraction is the laying out of about two tonnes of fruit and vegetables for the monkeys.

At the festival, hundreds of macaque monkeys were seen dancing on piles of fruit and climbing on people. The monkeys, which have very long tails, also scampered over bananas and pineapples.

The festival costs 100,000 baht in Thai currency, equal to 3,000 dollars. It is an annual traditional festival for local people, held in Lopburi to thank the monkeys, because they attract tourists to the area. Lopburi is also known as the monkey province.

Yongyuth Kitwatananusont, who has organised more than 30 monkey festivals, said today's festival was a special event because Lopburi's monkeys like expensive things.

He said this year's slogan is "wheelchair monkey": the money raised will provide wheelchairs for a hundred people. To attract tourists after the pandemic, Thailand scrapped quarantine rules from November, though only for vaccinated travellers, and the number of visitors to Thailand is already rising significantly.

Moroccan tourist Ayoub Bukhari said he was really happy to see the festival and is now thinking of going to another one. It was quite unexpected, and the monkeys were amazing, he said.

Some tourists were seen playing with the monkeys with their cameras. The revival of the tradition has also pleased local people. One of them, Thanida Fudjib, said this was the first time in two years that the monkeys could eat all kinds of fruit and vegetables, and she was happy for them.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.