A Nepalese girl in traditional attire takes part in Kumari Puja, a mass worship ceremony for preteen girls, in Kathmandu, Nepal on September 27, 2023. In Nepal, Kumari Puja is the tradition of selecting a Kumari, usually a preadolescent girl, to worship symbolically as a goddess. More than hundred girls under the age of nine from across the country gathered for the mass worship. Performing Kumari Puja for three continuous years is believed to protect the girls from diseases throughout their entire life. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA/EFE)

A fire-eater performs on the street of China Town during the celebration of Chinese New Year in Manila, Philippines on January 22, 2023. This year is the year of the Rabbit in the Chinese lunar calendar. (Photo by Dante Diosina Jr/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Chinese American actress Bai Ling arrives at the 58th Golden Horse Awards in Taipei, Taiwan, Saturday, November 27, 2021. Bai is a guest at this year's Golden Horse Awards, one of the Chinese-language film industry's biggest annual events. (Photo by Billy Dai/AP Photo)

A woman offers prayers at a temple during the Chinese New Year celebrations in Yokohama Chinatown, near Tokyo, Japan, 29 January 2025. The celebrations of the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, which falls on 29 January 2025, are held in Yokohama Chinatown, Japan's largest Chinatown. (Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA/EFE)

A devotee of the Ban Tha Rua Chinese shrine is helped with a spike pierced through her cheeks during a street procession celebrating the annual vegetarian festival in Phuket September 28, 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)

The vendors show the toy of snake at the Spring Festival Temple Fair for celebrating Chinese Lunar New Year of Snake at the Temple of Earth park on February 9, 2013 in Beijing, China. The Chinese Lunar New Year of Snake also known as the Spring Festival, which is based on the Lunisolar Chinese calendar, is celebrated from the first day of the first month of the lunar year and ends with Lantern Festival on the Fifteenth day. (Photo by Feng Li)

Balis Chinese community perform the dragon dance during Chinese New Year called Ngelawang ceremony on January 21, 2023 in Kuta, Bali, Indonesia. The Chinese diaspora of Southeast Asia is celebrating Lunar New Year, as COVID-19 restrictions have been removed, it is traditionally a time for people to meet their relatives and take part in celebrations with families. In Indonesia, ethnic Chinese families visited temples to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit on January 22. (Photo by Agung Parameswara/Getty Images)