Thaipusam is a Hindu religious festival, which "represents the annual climax of Murukan worship in Malaysia. It occurs in the Tamil month of Tai (January-February). . .The festival is most noted for the extravagant displays of penance, particularly the carrying of kāvaṭi, wooden or metal arches mounted on the shoulders of devotees and often attached to sharp hooks dug into their skin" (anthropologist Raymond Lee, from his article Taipūcam in Malaysia: ecstasy and identity in a Tamil Hindu festival, Contributions to Indian Sociology vol. 23, pp. 317–337).