(23 Jan 1997) Natural Sound
Defying pain, hundreds of Hindus pierced themselves with steel rods, needles and hooks in an annual religious ritual of thanksgiving and atonement.
This was the scene in the Malaysian capital on Thursday as some 800-thousand people gathered for the religious festival known as Thaipusam.
The festival was brought from India by 19th-century immigrants who came to then British-ruled Malaya as laborers and government officials.
Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Kuala Lumpur to celebrate the festival of Thaipusam, to pay homage to their god, Muruga.
The festival was brought from India by 19th-century immigrants who came to then British-ruled Malaya as laborers and government officials.
However, it is no longer practised in India.
The festival began with a procession of 70-thousand people led by the statue of Muruga - who embodies virtue, valour, youth, beauty and power - in a five-ton silver chariot drawn by bulls.
They paraded along a seven-mile (14 kilometer) route from a downtown temple to the Batu Caves temple.
About 800-thousand people were estimated to have attended the parade.
Defying pain, hundreds of Hindus pierced themselves with steel rods, needles and hooks in an annual religious ritual of thanksgiving and atonement.
With eyes rolling and bodies shaking in religious trance, the devotees climbed the 272 steps on a hill on the outskirts of the Malaysian capital to pay homage to their god, Muruga, in a cave the size of a football field.
Bare-chested men smeared in holy ash, wearing orange sarongs, and women draped in orange saris chanted "Muruga, Muruga" amid the thundering beat of drums.
Priests pierced their bodies with spikes in a bloodless operation as much tourist spectacle as religious service.
They thrust rods up to three feet long and nearly half an inch in diameter through their cheeks.
They pushed smaller steel pipes through their lips or tongues.
Others had needles poked into their chests.
Some hung limestone from their backs with small fish hooks.
After about two hours, the priests remove the piercing.
Devotees say they feel no pain as they are pierced. Also inexplicably, virtually no blood comes out of the wounds.
Hindus pay homage to the deity for defeating an absolute evil known as avana. The victory was won with a spear - the reason for the piercing.
Worshippers also carry kavadis, wooden yokes with rods poked into the flesh.
To prepare for the festival, devotees fast for seven weeks beforehand, taking one vegetarian meal in the night.
Similar celebrations took place in neighbouring Singapore and other Malaysian towns with large numbers of people of Indian descent.
About 7 percent of Malaysia's 19 million people and Singapore's 3 million people are of Indian descent - and most of those are Hindu.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
