News Crew Films Priest Pouring Boiling Milk on Sick Child in Ritual

An Indian government official is taking some heat after a news crew catches him attending a bizarre ritual ceremony involving boiling hot milk and a sick child.

The religious ritual taking place in Chandauli was attended by the NewsX crew who filmed a priest boiling milk and pouring it over his body in front of a large crowd. The priest then pulled a reportedly sick child to his side and did the same to him, a process which looked rather uncomfortable, if not extremely painful, to say the least.

Reporters were shocked to find Transportation Minister Durga Prasad Yadav not only attending the ceremony, but make no attempt at stopping the dangerous display, going so far as to encourage it.

The strange ritual is generally seen as a way of proving one’s faith to the Goddess Durga, who keeps the boiling milk bather from being burned via miraculous intervention.

Via Oddity Central:

Nine earthen pots are decorated especially for the occasion, filled with milk, and placed on primitive stone furnaces. Once the milk boils, the priest pours one pot after another over his head and all over his body. The ease with which he carries out the activity makes it all the more incredible. In the end, there isn’t so much as a scar on his skin.

Watch the video of the ceremony below, and see the ritual for yourself.

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