Thaipusam – Day 2
Sunday was the second day of Thaipusam. Devotees undertake a pilgrimage to the Waterfall temple while carrying kavadis as an act of penance and fulfilment of a vow or to develop spirituality. Carrying kavadis can be in the form of carrying Paal Kudam (milk pots) as offerings to god or in the form of physical endurance by piercing the cheeks, tongue, or skin on the body with hooks and Vel skewers.
Over 800,000 people were expected to attend this year’s Thaipusam festival. The pilgrims weave their way thru several temples that line the route to pray and receive blessings.
For their act of penance, these guys rolled instead of walking.
It is mostly the men that do the piercing.
But, there we some women that did so as well.
It is a family event with many cute kids all around.
Stalls line the path and it sometimes takes on a carnival like atmosphere.
At the end of their pilgrimage, the devotees remove their piercings. From what we witnessed, it looked more painful to remove the piercings than it did to do them in the first place.
Great pictures, Scott. It reminded me of the day we attended this event last year.
Wow Scott. These are wonderful – Who says engineers can’t be artists 🙂
Stunning photos. Those piercings and the pageantry… wondrous to see yet painful to imagine. Thank you so much for sharing.
I signed up . . . Scott’s adventures are too good to miss!