Photo © Chris McGrath-All Rights Reserved |
Chris McGrath is one of the photographers who attended the version of this Hindu festival in
Singapore, rather than Malaysia where it's held annually 13 kilometres outside its capital city, Kuala Lumpur.
In Singapore though, the preparations for Thaipusam begin early in the morning at the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple in Little India where the devotees start to perform the necessary rituals. Once these done, the procession moves through central Singapore to another Hindu temple about 2 miles away. The festival occurs on the full moon during the Tamil month of Thai, which occured on February 7, 2012.
On the day of the festival, devotees shave their heads and perform various acts of devotion, notably carrying heavy burdens, and carry out acts of self mortification by piercing their skin, tongue or cheeks with skewers and sharp hooks.
Thaipusam is on my bucket-list, but until I get the time and photograph it myself, I'm happy to feature images of this festival from various other photographers.
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