The Fire Dancers at the Bikaner Festival 2009 in Rajasthan
I was lucky to have been in Bikaner to witness their annual camel festival held from January 10-12 this year. One of the most fascinating events was the fire dance performed by members of the Siddh who are known to have a special vardaan or divine powers to be able to walk and dance of burning wood and coal. See all the images on Flickr.
There was a group of these people who danced around a fire for over half an hour, and would take turns to walk over the embers. Of course they would do it quickly and hit the dusty ground immediately to try cool their feet. But there was no trick here: they were clearly barefoot - you and I would not be able to do this
A few of them also took burning pieces in their mouth and let out sparks. WOW. And it was all so surreal in the setting: It was past 10 at night, in a desert with a full moon. Beat that.
Some images are given below, or you can go to Flickr to see all.