The Thaipusam is not for the fainthearted but I decided to watch this ritual. As I preferred non-tourist spots I went to the temple near Times Square in Penang. People there suggested me to go to Lorong Kulit because the piercing ritual was over. This was not really true as on my way back home, I saw some people carrying Kavatis(offerings pierced into someone's body) leaving the temple. Obviously they do prefer more privacy which is totally understandable for me. Since there were many tourists and visitors hungry for a sensational experience, I could imagine this would disturb the real purpose of the ceremonies.
As I said before in my previous article, the breaking of the coconuts and fruit baskets were one of the offerings. On the next day, the families would present larger offerings in the form of several fruits, flowers and milk. The "carrier" is chosen by the family and mostly a fairly young man(devotee) within the family. The Kavati or huge offering will be then pierced into the body of the devotee.
Piercing ritual
The family allowed me to approach very closely in front of the adventure-hungry tourists. However, I still believe that most families were spiritual believers where donations are welcomed but not mandatory. The devotee or chosen man by the family would stand praying along with the other family members chanting and dancing. This is accompanied by intriguing meditative drumming. The drumming and chanting became more intense as though they were firing the devotee. This became extremely strong as the priest placed the huge mouth and tongue piercing.I saw the western tourists dancing along the rhythms as though it was a Brazilian drumming concert. Apparently some of them had no idea of the content of the rituals.
The devotee is given some time to prepare himself and pray. After this he lays down on the mat. The chanting and drumming becomes very intense to probably encourage him or put him into deeper trance. The holy priests will place the small and large hooks into a intercuteneous area(within the layers of the skin). There was no blood flooding and I assume they placed the hooks into areas without blood vessels and spare nerves as much as possible.
Nothing for the faint-hearted, the small hooks seem to enter the skin(it could be even intercutaneous or into the upper part of the skin) while the large hooks were inserted in with more force(ouch) probably into a subcutaneous part or underneath the upper part of the skin. These hooks will later be attached to the Kavati or the offering burden and the man will carry the offering(flowers) with hooks pierced into his body. The scariest part was the mouth and tongue piercing where even someone like me who is used to medical procedures will start to gasp.
What would be a more rational reason for this ritual? Is it really as painless as people say?
I observed a few devotees and they closed their eyes as the hooks were placed into their skin. Obviously it was when not painful at least very unpleasant for them. Along with the family chanting, some men didn't show any expression, some closed their eyes during mouth piercing and their facial expression became tense, some of them were quite in pain and the priests needed to put a lime into their mouth. Part of the family and priests patted their shoulders to give them more courage. Sometimes a lime was inserted into their mouth during more invasive procedures and afterwards they spitted out the lime they had chewed. It seemed that it could relieve stress and pain too.
I smiled for an hour as one young man kept showed his pokerface throughout the procedure. After it was all over he kept on joking with his family and asked us to take as many photos as we wanted. He was the most good-looking man too and it seemed that he loved to be in the limelight. Overall, the pierced young men were keen on tourists and smiled into the camera.
As I was in Singapore, these men had to go through an 8-days fasting period and given religious instruction. I think after this fasting, they had lost a bit of their sanity which makes it easier for them to endure the procedure. Interviews with other families in Penang revealed that some of them didn't fast or received any religious instruction.
It does make sense that they believe so strongly that they could master the pain, exactly like self-hypnosis in chronic pain therapy. But if they had lost their sanity, how could they still deliberately stand in a certain pose in front of the camera, give instructions to the family and answer questions in English.
The Chinese community also played a large role in this ritual. I was very impressed by their generosity and courage. The piercing techniques were about the same but the mouth and tonge piercing was a lot heavier and longer than most of the Indians. I have also noticed that the Kavatis differ in size so did the amount of piercings, especially the mouth and tonge piercing.
Some men were given a waistbelt to help to carry the burden, so the kavati was not carried by the piercings only. But I saw quite a few men, especially the Chinese men, who administered it in the traditional way. The Kavati was held by the skin piercings only.
We can ponder and discuss for hours but I still think it is amazing how these people could go through this procedure. As I could observe it up close, I saw the differences how each of them individually could deal with the physical martyrium. Some braver than others because it may not be a pleasant procedure even for the chosen ones.
The men had to walk around 5 km in nailed shoes in the sun and the alleged weight of the Kavati is supposed to be around 30 kg. And I already complain doing a bushwalk in the sun in a trackless area? Now I can understand the fanatism of the Malaysian Hash House Harriers. Who would like to go through this penance and make offerings to the God Murugan?
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