On Nowruz, Patients In Kashmir Go For Leech Therapy

SRINAGAR, KASHMIR, INDIA - MARCH 21: A practitioner blows hot air from his mouth on the leech as he gives leech therapy to a Kashmiri patient on March 21, 2014, in Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian administered Kashmir, India. Nowruz, the beginning of the year in the Persian calendar has a different significance in Indian administered Kashmir. On this day, thousands of patients suffering from various skin ailments gather at Hazratbal, the outskirts of Srinagar to receive the leech treatment. In this centuries-old alternative treatment, practitioners use leeches to suck impure blood from the affected patient. Leech treatment is one of the oldest skin therapies in the valley and is believed to have been used to treat thousands of patients. Though overshadowed by more conventional treatments over the years, people from various parts of Kashmir travel to the Hazratbal market every Nowruz to receive the therapy. Nowruz also marks the first day of spring in Kashmir that extends roughly from March to early May. (Photo by Yawar Nazir/Getty Images)