Is Thaipusam piercing really painless?

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?

Breaking coconuts for Thaipusam Penang

One of the most spectacular festivals is probably the Thaipusam Festival. The breaking of 1001(?) coconuts was one unique way to offer gifts to receive blessings. Although I thought it would be such a waste to break all those coconuts which provide a healthy nutrition and useful otherwise.

Well, the more serious people pray through their coconut while lighting a fire on top of it, for the tourists, local and international alike, it was more like a sensation.

After being 1 1/2 hour too late, finally the ceremony started. I was positively surprised that the Chinese were as dedicated as the Indians. Even groups from Singapore presented their offerings along with a huge sign with the word:"Singapore" written on top of their offerings. Quite a few Chinese Malaysian businessmen showed their devotion to ghe Gods.

Nothing more spectacular than the sound of the breaking of the 1000 coconuts. I made quite a few photos and videos, so I could only break three coconuts and got hit by one too:-) A must-see in Penang despite the crowds and pushing.

Rural Penang and Perak, Malaysia

She sells one meter atap for RM 4,-
Woman making "atap", roof made from palm leaves
After the fishers came from the ocean, the brokers need to clean the fish they bought
Sunset by a secluded beach
Pulling the fishing net

Food in Hat Yai, Thailand

My CS host Nuch eating a delicious Thai vegetarian dish. I was very lucky to find a host who spoke English fluently. She was quite fluent in German as well. After completing her studies in Australia she pursued her career as senior medical librarian. She owns an apartment in Germany and goes there on a regular basis. A globalized Thai could introduce her culture better while still somehow understanding a Western viewpoint. Thanks to her guidance, I experienced less culture shocks and made less mistakes.
Making deutsche Wurst is very popular in Thailand. Nuch took me to the market at Hat Yai campus

University campus life in Hat Yai, Thailand

Morning pole exercises at the uni campus
Taiji at the university campus
Nuch and me by the campus lake
Children's Day organised by the Faculty of medicine
Children's Day at the university campus Hat Yai

Hat Yai, Thailand

Me hitting the gong at the pagoda in Hat Yai
My CS host Nuch from Hat Yai, Thailand
Me in a Taijiquan posture in front of a warrior statue

Temple in Hat Yai
Climbing up the hill to the pagoda near Hat yai

My involuntary Marcumar(blood-thinner) therapy

Going to a Hash House Harriers chapter in a different country definitely makes you to experience the culture in another country. I'm used to HHH in many countries where the majority of the hashers are expats who would like to meet like-minded people who love to exercise. Hashers that I met before were crazy expats who loved to be a drinking club with a running problem.

Not so in Malaysia. Apart from the beautiful Lake Gardens in Kuala Lumpur, the HHH that I experienced were more an extreme bush-bashing club. At least in the more rural areas, the clubs are a bush-bashing club with a drinking problem and not a usual drinking club with a running problem.In this part of the world you are forced to do the whole run in trackless bush area unless you would prefer to sit on ice. The fastest runner will get a reward unlike in the countries I have been hashing so far.

The HHH chapter Taiping Lake HHH was a nice club with charming people. I thought their runs were really easy and on a running track. When I knew it was through trackless muddy area, I would have gone for a small run.

There was a doctor there who didn't like to run and now I know why. They told me jokingly that their run was very short and easy. Short maybe and easy depends on the runner and the weather. Trackless bushland after heavy rainfall will make you sink into the mud about half of your body.

Despite my protectors Hassan and...(what's your name?) I had a fairly hard time. My jogging shoes were worn out after 1 1/2 years and there was virtually no profile left on the sole. So imagine driving a car with tyres who lost their grip in slippery muddy area. But I think even if I did have shoes with spikes I wouldn't like to run in the rain, scramble through the mud, tripping over thorns and get dirty.

The track was signposted by paper and this was washed away by the weather. So apart from the slippery mud hills and the rain, we had the battle with the bush. Our paper track was totally washed away and we got lost. I got nearly hysterical after scrambling up and down through the sliding mud hills and all of us unable to find the paper signs.

It was getting darker and darker until it became completely dark. There was nothing worse than bush-bashing in the dark through unknown jungle terrain. After searching for the right path I suggested my two companions to rest and scream:" on on." We may as well have yodeled but in Malaysia the "on on" scream would be more effective.

The rescue team was about to come and we waited for some time until we heard the horn and saw their torch.Even more charming sexy guys whose job was to rescue the lost runners, but they lost the track too. All the paper was washed out and gone.The whole up- and downhill through thorns, roots, mud started again. Something tweaked my feet and I thought already I was bitten by a leech.

Finally we could find our way out and after stripping off my socks I found around 10 leeches on my feet with only the fat ones visible. I decided to let them enjoy their dinner and stay on my body before I stepped on them to give them their final treat. I felt so sorry that I didn't have salt to make them suffer more.

In this part of Malaysia I also noticed that the extreme competitive sport is the primary goal while in expatriate HHHH communities that I know the social part was more prevalent than the competitive sports part.

As I reached home I found one last leech between my fingers. Since I wasn't patient enough to wait until he or she finished her supper, I just removed it lege artis(according to the rule of the art). The best way to remove a leech is to strip off the thinner tail with your finger and than strip it off. It was still alive as I hit him with my slipper....

My clother were so dirty and I didn't want to wash off the last leech from my socks. The next day I had a hard time to wash my favourite green Hash T-shirt and just threw away the socks with the leech.It was an experience where I would laugh after the fact was over. Just washing extremely dirty clothes before a big travel was not really pleasant.

And when I may say something, I was also not particularly impressed by the abruptness of the Lady Hash Cash. All the people in the club were helpful and friendly but this lady made me feel very uncomfortable. Remarks like:" You are not experienced in hashing." or "This is our club" were different from what I experienced in the HHH chapters all over the world so far.

On the contrary, as an international guest your first run would be on them and free of charge. As I had an operation in Istanbul, the HHH Istanbul who were primarily Americans and Englishmen suggested to just take a walk and join the social part.