During the yearly
trip to Kataragama, in the southern portion of the island of Sri Lanka,
devotees (bhakta) of the deity Skanda take one of the most severe vows.
This pledge is taken in exchange for bodily treatment or
relief from pain.
Those who kept the pledge put hooks into their back and leg
muscles; ropes were fastened to the hooks, and the devotees were hanged over
the heads of onlookers.
These devout followers are said to be rewarded for their
suffering with a state of euphoria in which they are free of pain and bleeding.
They are also thought to be mouthpieces for the deity Skanda
in this state, and other pilgrims seek their assistance for any and all problems.
For further detail, read Paul Wirz's Kataragama: Ceylon's
Holiest Place, published in 1966, and Bryan Pfaffenberger's "The
Kataragama Pilgrimage," published in Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 28,
No. 2, 1979.
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