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Thaipusam (Final)

2008.01.31

This is not special effect...

ouch!

pain....

I sneak behind him and took this....

ouch x 2

Love the way he STARES into my camera

exhausted

for blessing...

These are the Final part of my Thaipusam series,
I hope everybody enjoy it,
I tried my best to find a great angle to captured the event,
But Batu Caves was crowded and I need to fight my way through the crowd and get a perfect spot for my shot…..
There are many professional photographers and I trying to learn from them how to struggle throughout the crowd…haha
It was my first time for doing such photo shot and I really enjoy it =)
The festival itself overflowed with multicolored so I decided to stick with the main colors [Sorry b/w fans ;-)]

Here are some info from Wikipedia about Thaipusam

Devotees prepare for the celebration by cleansing themselves through prayer and fasting. On the day of the festival, devotees will shave their heads undertake a pilgrimage along a set route while engaging in various acts of devotion, notably carrying various types of kavadi (burdens). At its simplest this may entail carrying a pot of milk, but mortification of the flesh by piercing the skin, tongue or cheeks with vel skewers is also common. The most spectacular practice is the vel kavadi, essentially a portable altar up to two meters tall, decorated with peacock feathers and attached to the devotee through 108 vels pierced into the skin on the chest and back. Fire walking and flagellation may also be practiced. It is claimed that devotees are able to enter a trance, feel no pain, do not bleed from their wounds and have no scars left behind. However, some of the more extreme masochistic practices have been criticized as dangerous and contrary to the spirit and intention of Hinduism.

Thaipusam Part (1)

Thaipusam Part (2)

38 Comments

The last of the grand series.Very nice,interesting.Thank you!!!

somogyvari · 2008-01-31: 06:35

amazing set...Very beautiful!!!!!

pastel · 2008-01-31: 06:45

great set, thanks for sharing

giodinu · 2008-01-31: 07:16

OMG! That's amazing and scary! Eye-opening!

hellovicky · 2008-01-31: 07:42

Really interesting. You did a good job of learning from the pro's and getting your self into position! (I loved that comment!) Good work!

DancingDolphin · 2008-01-31: 07:47

Nice shots ... a lot are excellent !!!

Riccaster · 2008-01-31: 07:49

Very interesting. You did an excellent job of capturing it. You are right about the colors too!

vollenda · 2008-01-31: 08:35

Gorgeous!!!!!!!!excellent!!!!!beautiful!!!im very amazed!!!!

putri · 2008-01-31: 09:04

ouch.
i love the culture that you have shown,
great shots

fionarobinson · 2008-01-31: 09:22

omg, it looks really painful... great pictures. thanks for sharing.

tantatantan · 2008-01-31: 09:22

Amazing photos - The colours and angles are fantastic and so unreal! (Though the piercing looks bluddy painful :-) ) nice one!

Mofro · 2008-01-31: 09:40

You did a great job. I really enjoyed this entire series. Great work. And thanks for educating us.

bamommy · 2008-01-31: 10:09

auw... i did walk over glowing coal once but this is unbelievable...
Thanks for all the info..

eljapa · 2008-01-31: 10:19

No words! except congratulations for sharing this excelent work

Francesc21 · 2008-01-31: 11:27

great documentation photo, the series are inspiring.....

MIRWAN · 2008-01-31: 11:38

This is a wonderful set, thanks for sharing it !
Maybe a little vicious, but It's really interesting.

I'm happy without piercing and tatooes :)

ciao !

Ataru · 2008-01-31: 12:16

I always wanted to go to this event, but I can't seem to time my Malaysian trips with them...

Working in a crowd is annoying though, did you try to get any shots of tourists in this mess of people? I usually go for that when surrounded by tourists.

alexfelipe · 2008-01-31: 14:04

comp@on buenicimo retrato, pero en alguna eso rito sepasa.
El colorio y encuader perfeto

gasparmorales · 2008-01-31: 15:35

Great post... but very painful :P Thanks for sharing :)

Kovac · 2008-01-31: 16:17

this is fantaaaastic reportage!! I'm sure that you can get some award if you sent some of this photos to some competition of reportage photo (or maybe some well-known magazine can publish them), special in the countries where people don't know this celebration, because it's very interesting and you captured excallent details.

Pikapol · 2008-01-31: 16:55

Wow, you did an excellent job! Beautiful colours:)))

sutbali · 2008-01-31: 17:01

the colors are astounding! very interesting set and shot like a professional!

tomie · 2008-01-31: 17:08

Have been spellbound from all these your last posts! I like a lot of to discover these traditions very distant from my way of living. Thank you for having shared her with us!!!!

Matrix · 2008-01-31: 17:19