Counting down to Nine Emperor Gods Festival which is only 13 days away (or 12 days to the eve of the festival), let us talk about one of the more intriguing visual aspects of this celebration.
Besides the yellow flags and vegetarian stalls, one of the many iconic images associated with the upcoming Nine Emperor Gods Festival you see on the internet are those of bizarre and extreme body piercings done by Thai spirit mediums (Mah Songs). Not only are the piercings large, the items used leaves little to the imagination and are often unreligious but consist of mundane household objects... bicycle, step-ladders, stand-fan, blades, swords, etc.
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| A spirit medium with a big rod through his cheek connected to a small push bike during the 2019 Kuala Pilah Nine Emperor Gods Festival procession |
Whilst we seldom see such bizarre practices here in Malaysia, there are a few local mediums that do it, and there are also temples whom 'employ' mediums from Southern Thailand for this festival as a means to attract devotees and visitors to flock to their temple to witness this spectacle, as in the case of Kuala Pilah Nine Emperor Gods Temple.
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| Medium with lucky charms hanging from his cheek piercing. whilst the rod may look short and unimposing for now, they will connect huge flages to both ends of the rod for the procession through the town later on. |
So why do these mediums carry out such bizarre piercings? Well, some believe that by inflicting pain or mutilating themselves, the gods that possesses the spirit medium are transferring bad luck and averting misfortune from the devotees onto themselves.
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| Piercing the cheek of a medium in trance.... |
Also the blood that flows from self-inflicted wounds are believed to be 'divine' blood as it flows from a body that carries the divine spirit, and thus is used to make 'blood talismans' i.e. talisman with blood from self-mutilations smeared onto them. That is why you see in the pictures here the mediums have talismans and lucky objects hanging from their piercings as to empower them with this 'divine' power.
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| Having a metal bar pierced through your cheek isn't a typical job for the faint-heated or the uninitiated. |
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