Transgenders transform into goddesses at Hindu festival

Devanampattinam, India

THE transformation of transgender women into goddesses for an annual Hindu festival takes place in an atmosphere of reverent, sombre concentration. Laugh lines vanish, replaced by an impassive mask.

As they prepared to perform in the Mayana Kollai festival in a fishing village in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, some of the dancers slipped into trances so deep it appeared they might have fainted.

Indians who decide to live as kothis - also known as hijras, kinnars or aravani,…