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Heart and Soul: Walking on a hot coil

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Walking on a hot coil

26/07/2019 GMT

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, Walking on a hot coil

The Hindu festival of self-injuring to ask the gods for a good harvest.

Being hung from tall trees on sharp hooks attached to flesh and piercing body parts with hot iron rods; it's a painful, almost sadistic way of praying for the harvest from the Hindu god Shiva in West Bengal to be a good one.
 
Although they’re already experiencing some of the effects of climate change, they do not know about the catastrophe that awaits them in a future not so far away. West Bengal is amongst the areas in the world where scientists estimate climate change will hit the hardest.
 
Sahar Zand takes listeners on an extraordinary journey to the heart of West Bengal where religious ceremonies outnumber the months in the calendar. Here every child grows up knowing the proverb “13 festivals in just 12 months”.

Sahar hears how the faith in Shiva's power is so earnest, but that the evidence is that global warming is having a powerful and deadly affect on the farmers here. They tell her that many thousands of rural workers have committed suicide after their crops have been ruined.

Produced and Presented by Sahar Zand
Images: Sahar Zand / BBC

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