Tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past but some cultural practices and customs can be extremely bizarre to others outside thier communities.
Think young men drinking buckets full of their elders’ semen, wife-swapping, living with corpses of relatives and many more.
Here are some of the most extreme tribal rituals still existing today around the globe…
The Wodaabe wife-stealers
Stealing each other’s wives is a normal practice among the nomadic Wodaabe people of Africa’s Sahel desert and this they do during their annual Gerewol Festival.
The men paint their faces and decorate themselves with feathers to dance the Yaake – a courtship dance judged by three of the tribe’s most beautiful women.
Women can then choose to be “stolen” by the male tribe members – even if they already have a husband, a practice that sometimes lead to fights between men and even death.
The Sambia semen-drinkers
Have you heard about the Sambia people of Papua New Guinea? A community where boys are taken away from their families at the age of seven, housed with older men for around ten years, drinking the semen of their elders.
According to the Orijin Culture, drinking elders semen they believe would help the younger ones gain masculinity so they can become adults.
They also have sharp sticks poked up their nostrils until they bleed to show how much pain they can endure.
The Toraja corpse-keepers
The Toraja people of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, do not consider their deceased family members to be dead until their funerals – which can be a long time after they die.
In the meantime, their bodies are kept in the family home – sometimes for years – and treated as if they are still alive, with relatives washing them, changing their clothes and bringing them food and drink.
Even after they are buried, families dig up their dead loved ones every couple of years for ceremonies before placing them back in their graves.
The Phuket face-piercers
Taoists in Phuket, Thailand, show the strength of their beliefs by taking part in ritualistic self-mutilation and pain trials for the annual “Nine Emperor Gods” festival.
These include running over hot coals and piercing their bodies with a bizarre – and stomach-turning – variety of objects.
Swords, musical instruments, bicycles and even a model boat are just a few of the things seen pushed through people’s cheeks and tongues at the festival.
The Sateré-Mawé ant glove-wearers
The Sateré-Mawé people of Amazonas, Brazil, practice a painful coming-of-age ritual for their young men.
Boys as young as 12 gather bullet ants from the forest – stings from which are said to be 30 times more painful than those of bees – before putting them inside gloves made from leaves.
The young men wear the gloves 20 times for 10 minutes, performing a dance while the angry insects relentlessly sting them.
The Vanuatu land-divers
The tradition of land diving on the Pacific islands of Vanuatu sees young men and boys hurl themselves from a rickety wooden tower, with only pieces of tree vine wrapped around their ankles preventing them from slamming into the earth.
A successful jump sees brave participants dangling just inches from the ground after they’ve leapt off a platform.
It is known locally as the Naghol and is considered a right of passage for young men on the island.
The Dani finger-choppers
The Dani people of Western New Guinea, Indonesia, hack off part of their finger when a loved one passes away as a sign of respect and grieving.
The practice is meant to symbolise the pain one feels after losing a relative with people in the tribe often amputating multiple fingers during their lifetime.
It is mainly the women who practice the tradition, while males are best known for their distinctive penis sheaths, known as kotekas
The Mursi and Surma lip-stretchers
The Mursi and Surma peoples of Ethiopia are known for stretching out the lips of women with distinctive lip plates.
After knocking out the bottom two teeth at the age of around 15-18, the girl’s lip is pierced before being stretched out with larger and larger discs over time.
They are intended to attract a husband who also brings a dowry for her family – the size of which depends on the size of the disc.
The Thaipusam skin-impalers
Ultra-devoted Hindus pierce their skin with pins and hooks for the wince-inducing Thaipusam festival.
Followers of the faith bleed for their beliefs as they plunge needles through their cheeks and dig hooks into their backs.
Sharp objects are used to commemorate the Hindu goddess Parvati giving a spear to god of war Murugan so he could slay the demon Soorapadman.
The Kayan neck-stretchers
The women of the Kayan tribe of Mae Hong Son in Thailand have been dubbed the “giraffe women” and sport elaborate brass coils around their necks.
At the tender age of five the young girls start wearing the brass coil, and as they grow new coils are added.
Some believe it was used centuries ago as a way to prevent the women of the tribe from being enslaved by neighbouring communities as they would be deemed unattractive.
The Shia self-flagellators
Shia Muslims around the world cut themselves – or “self-flagellate” – during the annual religious festival of Ashura.
Men using whips, kitchen knives and even chains with blades attached to them to slice open their bodies to commemorate the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson Imam Hussein.
Hussein was killed during the 7th century Battle of Karbala in modern-day Iraq – an event that led to the current division between Shia and Sunni Muslims.
