A devotee of the Chinese Jui Tui Shrine has his face pierced with metal rods during a street procession during the annual Vegetarian Festival in the southern Thai town of Phuket on October 19, 2015. During the festival, which begins on the first evening of the ninth lunar month and lasts nine days, religious devotees slash themselves with swords, pierce their cheeks with sharp objects and commit other painful acts to purify themselves, taking on the sins of the community. (Photo by Nicolas Asfouri/AFP Photo)

Hindu pilgrims walk along a mountain path as they make their pilgrimage to the sacred Amarnath Cave, one of the most revered Hindu shrines, near Baltal, Kashmir, India. (Photo by Daniel Berehulak)

Women dressed in kimonos pose for a selfie photograph at a deserted torii path Fushimi Inari Taish shrine on January 18, 2021 in Kyoto, Japan. Kyoto, along with a Osaka and several other prefectures, was brought under a state of emergency last week by the Japanese government as they grapple to contain the third, and most virulent, wave of Covd-19 coronavirus to hit the country. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)

A Pakistani devotee dances to celebrate the three-day annual festival to pay tribute to the famous saint Al-Sheikh Ali Bin Usman Al-Hajveri known as Data Ganjbaksh at outside his shrine in Lahore, Pakistan, Sunday, November 20, 2016. Thousands of people traveled from all over Pakistan to attend the celebrations. (Photo by K.M. Chaudary/AP Photo)

A woman kneels down to pray at a “Pray and swipe right” event organised by online dating app Tinder, with social-distancing stickers featuring its flame logo on the praying ground, a photo booth where people can take profile pictures for their new accounts, and free offering sets, at the Trimuriti shrine on Valentine's Day in Bangkok, Thailand February 14, 2022. (Photo by Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters)

Shiite Muslim pilgrims march with banners towards the shrine city of Karbala ahead of the Arbaeen commemorations that mark the end of the 40-day mourning period for the seventh century killing of the Prophet Mohamed's grandson Imam Hussein ibn Ali, in the city of Nasiriyah in Iraq's southern Dhi Qar province on August 14, 2024. (Photo by Asaad Niazi/AFP Photo)

A devotee of the Chinese Bang Neow Shrine, with two plastic guns pierced through his cheeks, takes part in a street procession celebrating the annual vegetarian festival in Phuket September 29, 2014. The festival, featuring face-piercing, spirit mediums and strict vegetarianism celebrates the local Chinese community's belief that abstinence from meat and various stimulants during the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar will help them obtain good health and peace of mind. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

Eighty one-year-old Sakon Haba (L) wearing loin cloth walks past a police station after he bathed in ice-cold water at the Teppozu Inari shrine in Tokyo January 11, 2015. According to organizers, about 100 participants took part in the Shinto ceremony to purify their souls and wish for good health in the new year. (Photo by Toru Hanai/Reuters)