Thaipusam is a Hindu festival celebrated by the Tamil community in countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and Sri Lanka on the full moon day of the Tamil month of Thai.
During the festival, devotees will undertake a pilgrimage along a route starting from one Hindu temple to another, while engaging in acts of devotions known as "kavadi" (burdens). These burdens range from the carrying of pots of milk to the piercing of the tongue, cheeks and skin with steel or wooden rods.
For the first time in 40 years, live music was allowed at Singapore's Thaipusam festival which took place on Sunday. The lively procession stretched 4.5 kilometres from the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple to the Sri Thendayathapani Temple and saw 300 kavadi carriers compared to last year's 250.
It's not uncommon for Thaipusam to draw crowds of thousands, mostly devotees as well as curious bystanders fascinated by how the kavadi carriers are able to withstand the pain of piercing themselves with structures that weigh up to 40 kilograms.
Singaporean documentary photographer Edwin Koo has been passionate about capturing the richness and diversity of Indian culture and traditions since his return to Singapore in 2011 after spending two years in Kathmandu.
"To many of us outsiders, Thaipusam appears as a procession of Hindu devotees, some bearing elaborate kavadis pierced into their bodies. But it is more than that. It is the ultimate display of devotion and faith -- a culmination of a month of spiritual preparation both physical and mental," he told Mashable via email.
For this year's Thaipusam, Koo chose to capture the procession in black-and-white using an iPhone 6s.
[img src="http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/thaipusam4.jpeg" caption=""The feeling being this close to the procession was euphoric," said Koo. Despite over 20,000 devotees participating in the procession, crowds were orderly. " credit="Edwin Koo" alt="thaipusam4"]
"Thaipusam is just one of the myriad of colourful, mesmerising festivals that the Indian diaspora continue to celebrate here in Singapore, and it is heartening that, in this ultra-modern city of skyscrapers and high-tech gadgets and gizmos, a faith thousands of years old continues being commemorated with passion and zeal," Koo adds. "It certainly is a festival that’s captured the imagination -- and imagination, not techniques, is certainly the most important yet overlooked part of photography."
