COMBINATION PHOTOGRAPH OF A SINGAPOREAN HINDU DEVOTEE REACTING TO HER TONGUE PIERCING DURING THE THAIPUSAM FESTIVAL IN SINGAPORE.


A Hindu devotee reacts as her tongue is pierced during the Thaipusam festival in Singapore February 7, 2001, in this combination photograph. Hundreds of the city-state's ethnic Indians, who comprise about 8 percent of the population, participated in the annual Hindu festival, in which devotees subject themselves to painful rituals in a demonstration of faith and penance.