Thai monkey festival in Lopburi draws crowds

A banquet fit for monkeys was served on Sunday at the annual Monkey Feast Festival in Lopburi, in central Thailand. Monkeys are viewed as a symbol of the province, which is situated around 150 kilometers north of Bangkok.

"This monkey feast festival is a successful event that helps promote Lopburi's tourism among international tourists every year," said Yongyuth Kitwatanusont, the festival's founder. Previously, there were around 300 monkeys in Lopburi before increasing to nearly 4,000 nowadays.

But Lopburi is known as a monkey city which means monkeys and people can live in harmony.The festival is an annual tradition in Lopburi, which is held as a way to show gratitude to the monkeys for bringing in tourism.

This year's theme is 'monkeys feeding monkeys', an antidote to previous years where monkey participation had decreased due to high numbers of tourists.