Walking On Fire at Haji Malang 2010

Walking On Fire at Haji Malang 2010, originally uploaded by firoze shakir photographerno1.

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I dedicate this lot of pictures shot of the Dhamal at Haji Malang Shrine to my mentor Dr Glenn Losack MD..This is way up his alley we both love shooting pain , blood gore and Thaipussam.

This is fighting fire with your legs like football , a bunch of burning agarbattis incense sticks are thrown at the Malangs legs and they holding each other by the waist walk over it, it is absolutely painful, and at the end a few of the Malangs fell fainted and went into a trance.. and it continued till hundreds of these bunches were thrown at the surviving malangs ..

This is a series that I shot, but could not move , I had to make sure I did not block the view of the crowds as they kept shouting at me..Every Rafaee order connected to Haji Malang did their body piercing acts..including to the order that I am connected to as a photographer Chancawalli Rafaees or mendicants or Fakirs of Chand Shah Wali Dargah Mumbai .

I keep the Hijra pictures on hold they are perhaps a 6 GB card or more all shot at Haji Malang remaining to upload..

I will not cross blog the Dhamal at all, so please visit my Flickr photostream.

And I know Dr Glenn Losack had a bad experience climbing down the mountains at Haji Malang , now seeing these pictures I hope he comes with me to the Urus next year , the Ketkar brothers Hindu khadims of Haji Malang , Abhijeet and Kumar have offered him total hospitality..