There is something about religious rituals like extreme body piercing which amazes me and trust me: I'm not an easy person to be impressed.
The photos above are from Thaipusam, an Hindu festival celebrated by the Tamil community on the full moon of the Tamil month (Jan/Feb according to the Tamil Calendar). I came across it in Singapore and Malaysia, countries where I lived in the past 5 years which despite Tamil communities being minorities the festival is celebrated to its fullest, often attracting over one million devotees and tens of thousands of tourists.
The festival celebrates the occasion when Parvati (Hindu goddess) gave Murugan (Hindu deity) a spear so he could vanquish the evil demon Soorapadman. Therefore the spear is a common symbol during the Thaipusam, usually pierced horizontally through the sides of a devotee’s mouth and vertically through the tongue.
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| Parvati |
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| Murugan during Thaipusam |
The spears used can be up to one metre long, making turing around a bit dodgy. The significance of piercing the metal rod through the mouth for the devotee is denouncing the gift of speech temporarily and channeling one’s energy toward God. Preparations for the festival include silence, prayers, fasting and abstinence.
It is unbelievable to see to what kind of trance the devotees go through: apart of the cleansing, prayers etc the moment of piercing the body with the spears is something else. Surrounded by other devotees chanting mantras the devotee usually has his/her mouth and tongue hooked with no mercy. After that more hooks are hanged into the skin on the back, belly and whatever else... It seems they feel no pain and amazingly there is no blood, nothing at all...
In the case of the Celebration in Kuala Lumpur, at Batu Caves they endure up to 8 hours/15 kilometers of procession from downtown to the Caves culminating in a flight of 272 steps to the top...
What somehow scares me is "the look" of a devotee while possessed by the spirits... Once all the rituals are done, the hooks and spears are taken away and still for some moments "the look" is there... After the trance is gone, they feel nothing and in two or three days whatever scars, if any, are also gone!
Take a look on this video: See to Believe: Thaipusam Spear Ritual
This certainly is not the only festival of a kind in the world, there is much more around, mostly but not only in Asia: the self crucification by Christians in Philippines is also something else, but how Science can explain that?!
To me any kind of self inflicted suffering and pain is unbearable, a taboo and far beyond my comprehension, but as a curious abserver on what happens around the world am always interested in all its aspects!
Maybe one day will have a breakthrough and will be able to comprehend it! So far, I keep watching! :)
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