Temple de Python - Benin

Hello to all!
Here we are inside Temple de Python, located in Ouidah town (Quartier Dangbéhoué), Republic of Benin, west Africa.

Benin is the centre of animism religion.
Animists adore all the expression of nature: there are temples for many natural phenomenas, animals or elements. For example there are temple for earth, water, rainbow, chameleon, etc. etc. Each temple is completely different from one divinity to another one. For example you can be priest in rainbow divinity temple and you can't do ceremony divinity in earth temple.

In this temple pythons are adored as divinities, and it exists from 13th century.

As you see these people has a special kind of scarifications on their cheeks, so we know they adore pythons. This type of scarifications are similar to the five scarifications the pythons have, to regulate their temperature.

There two species of pythons here: sebae and royal.
Every month pythons can move free outside the temple to take food (birds, chickens and mice), and they are brought back to the temple by people.

This is Iroko tree, a tree that holds spirits of ancestors and it is believed it is 600 years old. Every three days they used red oil to thanks the spirits of this divinity.

This is the sanctury of the temple, the secret place. Inside it there is a secret stone, where old the spirits come. Only initiated people can go in.
The wall inside is made in 1717. Here they do woodoo rituals:

Every seven days they open this pot (made by stone, see following pictures), they put it inside the temple and then they bring it outside. Priests put inside the pot some leaves from different plants, each leaves is used to fix a specific disease. When they take the leaves, they choose thirtyone virgins, but today is very difficult to find virgins, so they take thirtyone very old women. These women go the river to take secret water. They put the water inside the pot, they add the leaves and mix very well, using this potion to purificate all the city. The pot is two hundreds years old. On the pot there are many rituals signs.

The temple has some rules: you can't dress your shoes inside. If you do some wrong things, you must purificate yourself. Women with menses can't come inside the temple, because not pure.

This is the room where python lives:

It is possible to touch pythons. Embracing one of them, I felt a strong connection with the power and the wilderness of nature.

Pictures taken with Sony Alpha 7iii.
October 2022.