Gory spirit festival lights up Cambodian capital
Spirit mediums in headdresses and lurid make-up, their cheeks pierced by needles and tongues cut by knives, lead a striking procession through the Cambodian capital to mark the end of Chinese New Year.
Hundreds of people filled an alley for the colourful annual festival, known as the Hei Neak Ta, or the spirit parade.
The procession mixes Chinese ritual and local folk tradition in a country where beliefs in the spirit world run deep.
Believers invite spirit-possesed mediums into their shops and homes to bless them with good luck or to banish illness or bad fortune.
The mediums forced needles through their cheeks and cut their tongues, using blood to write mystical diagrams known as yantras on paper slips before distributing them to the crowd.
Hundreds of people filled an alley for the colourful annual festival, known as the Hei Neak Ta, or the spirit parade.
The procession mixes Chinese ritual and local folk tradition in a country where beliefs in the spirit world run deep.
Believers invite spirit-possesed mediums into their shops and homes to bless them with good luck or to banish illness or bad fortune.
The mediums forced needles through their cheeks and cut their tongues, using blood to write mystical diagrams known as yantras on paper slips before distributing them to the crowd.