Thai-Chinese Virgins Compete to Become a Goddess and be Worshiped for Chinese New Year

Beautiful young Thai-Chinese virgins have gathered at a shrine in Nakhon Sawan in Thailand to compete on Thursday to become Guan Yin, the Goddess of Compassion, for the country’s upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations.

The contest is among the traditional Chinese New Year rites that the community has been celebrating for more than a hundred years.

From an initial group of 20 Thai virgins with Chinese lineage, five finalists aged 16-20 years old were chosen to compete at the event that was attended by a huge crowd at the Nha Pha God-Goddess Shrine, in the Pak Nam Pho area of the central Thailand province.

While the competition is said to be centered on luck and faith, attractiveness of the contestants eventually played a factor as well as each finalist was undeniably good-looking. Interestingly, it was not mentioned in the report whether the girls were actually virgins — there is no valid test to identify if they were.

According to the Bangkok Post, the faithful believes that Guan Yin herself chooses the final winner. The contest involved each participant to throw two wooden bars at a shrine three times. The girls needed to have a bar to face up while the other faces down for the initial two rounds. To win in the final round, both bars must face down.

The virgin chosen at the end of this year’s competition was 18-year-old Tassayaporn Wongsaksirikul. She will be worshiped as Guan Yin by her entire city from Jan. 21 to Feb. 1, the period of the Chinese New Year celebration. She is scheduled to appear in a parade around the city wearing the goddess’ costume on Jan. 30 and 31.