Snake Fighter Redux

Thak is from a village in Northern Thailand where many of the inhabitants make their living from performing with snakes. His usual performance is a stylised fight / dance with a King Cobra. Here he is performing with another kind of snake at the ShowReal Asia 2 award ceremony at Fort Canning Green in Singapore. Thak is performing with another kind of snake probably because they wouldn't let him bring the highly poisonous King Cobra into Singapore. The documentary featuring Thak's village won the best director award.

Thak performed with his 7 year old nephew, who is learning the trade from Thak. Thak's own son is not following in his father's footsteps because he's seen his father get bitten and sent to the hospital a few times. Thak was in fact seriously bitten two weeks after the documentary was completed. He survived the bite because they managed to get him a shot of antivenin in time. The TV crew had donated their supply of antivenin to village after completing the shoot. The villagers would not otherwise have had their own supply.

B&W conversion and re-crop of the previous post.