Thaipusam

Some would call it masochistic, even primitive but for Hindu devotees, THAIPUSAM is an annual Hindu festival which gathers the largest gathering of Malaysia's muti-racial population - over a million people!

In Kuala Lumpur, the festival is celebrated on the eve with a procession starting from the Sri Mahamariamman Temple, and ending at Batu Caves just 13 km outside of the city. It began in 1892, with two Tamils who trekked up the difficult ancient limestone hill and planted the`vel' (a metal lance) in the cave which houses a temple dedicated to Lord Murugan.

To many Thaipusam is the day of thanksgiving or atonement for wrongs with traditional rituals:

Several hundred devotees spear their cheeks with long, shiny steel rods (often a meter long) and pierce their chests and backs with small, hook-like needles in penance.

Most carry a small pot of milk up the steps to be poured on the vel.

The really serious endure the task of bearing an enormous circular 'kavadis' (weighing as much as 100 kg) either carried above their heads or pulled, anchored with chains and ropes to the skin.

Some parents carry newborn babies slung in a cloth-cradle hung on a pole shouldered at both ends by the mother and the father as thanks for a safe birth.

Others shave their heads bald as a symbol of humility and atonement.

After a ritual cleansing at a stream at the foothills, devotees walk up the 272 steps into the caves supported by family and friends.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Shooting this event was a physical and mental challenge. Days before Thaipusam, hindu devotees fall into a trance before the spears and hooks are skewered into their skin. Although in this high state of trance during the procession, they are supposedly very much aware of those around them. However when they paused, I was able to place myself into the middle with the lens right up to their faces, as if I was not there. But when they started to walk again, it was more than unnerving to have a red waggling tongue and wide open eyes coming towards me and even more so, be in the way or stuck underneath a kavadi. The atmosphere was one of friendliness and spiritual calmness but mixed with heat, loud music, beating drums and the intoxicating smell of incense, bystanders have been known to fall into a similar state of trance. That being said, I found it was often necessary to step away and breathe.

More about Thaipusam here.