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Photo by: SOVANN PHILONG

The celebration of the annual three-day Heir Nak Ta festival kicked off Sunday in Phnom Penh. Marked by ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese Cambodians, participants dress up in colourful traditional clothing and pray to the deity Nak Ta, asking the gods to bring good fortune to believers. The post-Chinese New Year ritual often features participants going into a trance and cutting their tongues with swords.