Feature: The Believers: How religious minorities use rituals — from simple prayer to violent penance — to build community.
From Malaysia to Cuba, how religious minorities use rituals — from simple prayer to violent penance — to create a sense of community.
For devotees of Santería—a centuries-old religion that mixes Yoruban ethnic traditions from the West African slaves brought to Cuba, with the Catholicism of the island’s colonial past—Dec. 17 is among the year’s holiest days. Thousands of believers flock to a small church in the Cuban village of El Rincón to celebrate Día de San Lázaro, the birthday of Babalu-Aye, the deity of illness and healing. The twins shown here have collapsed in exhaustion after walking dozens of miles to pay homage.
The Santería community is among the many spiritual groups that Spanish photographer Jordi Pizarro has documented since 2010. By focusing on religious minorities—from Orthodox Christians in Israel to Hindus of Tamil descent in Malaysia—Pizarro explores how ritual, even when violent, helps reaffirm bonds and how such performance is fundamental to a belief system. “Faith,” he says, “is strengthened through ceremony.”
After traveling for more than one week with a cinder block chained to his ankle, a man arrives in the outskirts of El Rincón in 2012. Acts of penitence are common on Día de San Lázaro, though this particular practice, Pizarro says, is not widespread.
During Thaipusam, devotees make a pilgrimage to the temple at Batu Caves near Kuala Lumpur. Many, like the man pictured here in 2014, pierce their skin with hooks or skewers.
All photographs by Jordi Pizarro
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