Hindu Thaipusam devotees earn both divine credit and social prestige proportional to self-inflicted pain.

Evidence

The Thaipusam festival, among Tamil Hindu communities in Malaysia, Singapore, and elsewhere, is a yearly celebration in which devoted Hindus engage in various public acts of self-sacrifice, known as the Cavadee. It is believed that these acts will appease Lord Murugan, the Tamil God of War, or result in favors granted. These acts can range from the mild, such as shaving one’s head and carrying a light load, to severe, such as days of fasting prior to the festival, walking on nails, and piercing the skin, tongue, and cheeks with skewers (figure 6.1). The greater the pain, the more divine credit earned with Lord Murugan, and the greater the social prestige achieved in the community. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 329

Categorization

• SHARE: Worth sending to anyone following ritual-scarification or Tamil diaspora studies — the direct mapping of pain to prestige is a clean data point.