Thursday, February 26, 2009

Thaipusam 2009

I'm kinda lazy lately, hence the delay in posting. The following are photos taken during the recent Thaipusam Festival (earlier this month, on 8 February 2009) at Waterfall Road, on the way to Botanical Garden in Penang. I have taken a total of 600++ photos but I will only post a few here due to space constraint.

A group of Hindu devotees assemble in front of Waterfall Temple.

Devotee carrying pot filled with milk as offerings.

Devotee receiving blessing as well as a dab of ash onto the forehead, by the Hindu priest.

Milk overflowing..

Small kid drinking milk while the adult devotee carrying pot of milk as offering. :)

Parents carrying a small boy/or girl to the temple using sugar canes.

"People mountain people sea" aka human traffic jam, definitely not for those with crowd phobia.

A young kavadi bearer, I wonder how old is this little boy?

A group of devotee coming out from the Hindu temple. What u notice in this photo? Besides the body piercing and the colourful Hindu God statues on top of the milk pot, the second guy in the picture walked with closed/covered eyes.

Extreme body and face piercing with mini pots hooked to curved needles.

Oucchhhh...

Piercing the cheek with skewer.

Close up shot of the back piercing.

Huge hooks with the gigantic heavy weight pot..

I can feel the pain by just looking at the gigantic hooks piercing the skin and muscle, but it leave no pain to the person in trance.

Chinese devotee. Not for the faint-hearted.

*Gulp* I can't help but to think of... Will it leave behind a big hole on the cheek when the skewer was removed subsequently?

Devotees along Waterfall Road.

Till we meet again next year :)

16 comments:

rainbow angeles said...

see ghost.. oops.. no, it's trapping ghost!

3-8 la.. long time no 3-8 liao ;p

rainstorm said...

Nice shots !

Wyn said...

adui...sakitnya....

mistipurple said...

trance /devotion, etc.
very mystical.
i am very intrigued by this yearly event, but i am also quite frightened, and respectful of their devotion. very mixed eh my feelings.

Michelle Mak said...

*shrugs*
scarynnnyyyeeerrrr.....
n how they can tahan laa??

Tekkaus said...

Warr...lots of photos! nice snaps! =)

Furkids in Hong Kong™ said...

Nice documentation, albeit a little scary.

Great pics doc.

Chen said...

rainbow Angeles,
Hahaha, we play too much ghost trapping game already. And it's time to play Ghost Trappers again.

Yeah loh, long time no 38 d.
Miss those old days :)

rainstorm,
Thanks :)

wyn,
can feel the pain by just looking at the picture :D

misti,
This is the first time I went to experience the Thaipusam festival. Previously either i was working or too lazy to go out (cos of the huge crowd) :)

Chen said...

michelle,
i heard they won't feel the pain leh.
We are the one who feel it, by just looking :)

tekkaus,
Thanks Tekkaus. Although I stayed in Penang for 9 years already, this was the first time I went out for the Thaipusam Festival :)

furkids,
Thanks Furkids. Can see many visitors with "big camera" taking photos at the event. Penang was flooded with Hindus that day, who come all over from the northern region of Malaysia :)

Robin CHAN said...

what a wonderful post. it brings out the spirit, fun and tradition.

yes, milk... churning the sea of milk as in ramayana.

thanks for this beautiful post.

Anonymous said...

*no eye see*

very festive and colourful. i'm sure there were a lot of beautiful moments to capture!

mistipurple said...

*peeps*
no new post keh... :P

Redsponge said...

this post mengandungi unsur-unsur ganas! 'x'

wo pa pa!

Nickerson Woo said...

wow...nice angle for the photo shooting...
but it is really painful for those guys...-_-"

your text here

Chen said...

robin,
Glad u like the post and the pictures. I have posted more pictures on this Thaipusam series on one of my online album. I will send u the link to the album :)

kyh,
This was the first time I attended such event. I tend to avoid it in the past cos of the crowds. (Another reason was I was working during the Thaipusam festival few years back).

Yeah, many interesting shots to take but after staying and walking for 3 hours plus, I was exhausted :)

Chen said...

misti,
Thanks Misti.
Kkkkk... I was lazy the last few days or weeks. Looking at the date of my last post... Looks like I haven't update my blog for almost 3 weeks already.

Hence today I decided to write another new post. Hopefully I will be more hardworking in the days to come. :)

redsponge,
Haha, this is not a "U" rated post, but "18 PG" instead. Your baby boy, Cola cannot read this post, else he might have nightmare :P

Nickerson Woo,
Thanks for dropping by. From what I heard, those devotees won't feel the pain despite the piercing with the thick & sharp skewer...