Shan boys pray before they have their heads shaved in anticipation of their ordination in the Poy Song Long Ceremony at Wat Pa Pao in Chiang Mai, Thailand on April 3, 2018. Poy Sang Long (“The Festival of the Crystal Sons”) is a ceremony that marks a rite of passage among the Buddhist Shan people in Myanmar and northern Thailand. Boys between seven and fourteen years of age are ordained as Buddhist novices during a three day ceremony. Before the ceremony starts the boys have their heads shaved. (Photo by Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Policemen stand guard during a protest in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, July 11, 2022. (Photo by Rafiq Maqbool/AP Photo)

A starling jealously guards a seed station in the back garden of the photographer’s Michigan home in January 2024. (Photo by Lisa Cavanary/Solent News)

A young Matachin dancer sits on a the side during the annual pilgrimage in honor of Mexico's patron saint the Virgin of Guadalupe in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, December 12, 2016. (Photo by Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters)

A girl from the Tharu community takes part in a ritual during the Shama Chakewa festival to honor the relationship between brothers and sisters in Kathmandu on November 8, 2022. (Photo by Skanda Gautam/ZUMA Press Wire/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

A man covered in motor oil, poses for a picture next to a girl dress a traditional clothes during a festivities in honor of Santo Domingo de Guzman in Managua, Nicaragua, Saturday, August 1, 2015. Some of the faithful coat their bodies in a black motor oil, red paint and wear traditional clothes as a promise for a prayer or miracle they believe was performed or answered by Managua's patron saint, Santo Domingo de Guzman. (Photo by Esteban Felix/AP Photo)

A guard dog in the suburbs of Yakutsk, Russia, considered to be the coldest city in the world, January 2014. (Photo by Amos Chapple/REX Features)