Hooked and skewered
By Richard Seah
5 Feb 2009
This weekend (8 February 2009) is Thaipusam, a Hindu festival that is, ironically, celebrated on a grander scale outside of India - particularly in Southeast Asia but also in the Maldives and South Africa.
This is a festival marked mainly by the Tamil community from South India, in honour of Lord Murugan (also known as Subramaniam), the son of Lord Siva.
At Batu Caves 15 km outside the Malaysian capital city of Kuala Lumpur, the event reportedly draws over a million people. Those figures could well be exaggerated. But it is certainly a very big festival there, celebrated over three days. I have never been there, but have been photographing the smaller scale event in Singapore.
The main ritual in Thaipusam is the offering of a kavadi or "physical burden". In its simplest form, this is a pot of milk carried over the head. And the devotee would carry it in a procession of several kilometres from one temple to another.
More elaborate kavadis, however, take the form of an altar for Lord Murugan mounted on a frame of skewers pierced into the devotees' body. Alternatively, it could be a chariot holding the altar and attached, via chains, to hooks pierced into the devotees' skin. In addition, devotees typically have skewers pierced through their cheeks and tongues.
To prepare for this ritual, devotees undergo a period of prayer, vegetarian diet and fasting. While having their bodies pierced, they enter a trance and apparently feel no pain. No blood is shed.
For spectators and photographers who are unprepared, all this can be quite gruesome and scary to watch. I certainly was scared the first time I went to photograph Thaipusam in 1985. Before that, I had only seen it from afar or in newspaper reports. Very quickly, however, I sensed the holiness and spirituality of the event. After all, Thaipusam is a religious festival. I began to feel comfortable and happily snapped away.
My first Thsipusam photography yielded a number of images - including photographs of hands - which, even today, I am still proud of. I was fascinated. But even though I kept wanting to go back for more photos, I never did so until nearly 20 years later in 2004. Since then, I have been photographing Thaipusam every year and I am half contemplating going to shoot the bigger event in Kuala Lumpur this year.
The event does attract a good number of photographers, from connoisseurs with their Leicas and Hasselblads to snap shooters with their point and shoot cameras and now, mobile phones.
Thaipusam images have, in fact, become cliché in this part of the world. A friend who used to be a creative director in both advertising and publishing companies tells me that just about every photographer seeking work has Thaipusam images in his/her portfolio.
While I am usually the first to run away from clichés, I take Thaipusam as a challenge - to capture images that still stand out from the mass. I believe I have succeeded somewhat. If you perform an image search for "Thaipusam" on the Internet, I don't think you will find many like mine.
But then, I am obviously and unashamedly bias. So better you be the judge. I hope you enjoy this presentation of some of my favourite Thaipusam images.
Thaipusam occurs on the full moon in the month of Thai, which is the 10th month of the Hindu calendar. This is sometime in January or February. Since Chinese New Year occurs on the new moon, also in January or February, Thaipusam is always either two weeks before or after Chinese New Year.
4 responses
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Karmakar Akash said (5 Feb 2009):
Living in India , I can relate to this festival, brilliant job, you have captured the essence of the festival with stupendous compositions! Kudos to you!
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Richard Seah said (5 Feb 2009):
Thanks Akash. But tell me, how is it like in India because what I read is that it is not such a big event there and that the body piercing etc are either banned or discouraged?
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Alexandru Valentin Iedu gave props (4 Mar 2009):
FANTASTIC DOCUMENTARY WORK ... I'M VERY IMPRESS !!!
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'nita Jean gave props (14 Jun 2009):
Incredible!!! YES!! THIS SHOULD BE PUBLISHED!!
