A very strange sight indeed!

Walking home through Little India last night I was greeted by one of the most bizarre sights that I think I have ever seen! We live very close to Little India, so when there are big celebrations on we love to walk through the streets and take in all the colours and vibrancy of their festivals, but tonight, their festival came to us.

All the colours and vibrancy of Little India!

The celebration of Thaipusam is something that I think I will never be able to forget seeing. The Hindu festival requires devotees of the Tamil community (one of the largest Indian communities in Singapore) to first cleanse themselves through prayer and fasting for 48 hours, before shaving their heads and walking through the streets, from one temple to another, engaging in acts of devotion.

Lights and decoration to be carried through the town

Some of them carry heavy burdens – we saw a very old chap with a grey beard down to his waist with an elaborate structure covered in heavy looking decoration running from his waist to around 6 feet tall.

These decorations and beautiful to look at, but it’s the other devotees who go one step further that really catch your eye. Generally they were younger, very serious looking men, surround by large groups of their friends, chanting and encouraging them along their journey. Each of these younger men had taken action such as piercing the skin on either side of their mouths so that they could hold an arrow through their mouth, coming out either side of their cheeks. Many also had hooks looped through the skin of their backs. These in turn were attached to either wagons or friends who were applying as much pressure as possible to hold the men back, forcing them to almost crawl through the streets to reach the goal.

Devotee making his way to a temple on the other side of town

It really was one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen, especially as it was taking place through the conservative streets of Singapore, but there’s something amazing about living so close to the outskirts of Little India – we really do get to see the best of both the Indian and Chinese communities.