Datuk Chachar is an annual Hindu festival in Malacca, in which the faithful inflict  horrible pain on them selfs as a form of thanking the gods for the benevolence. It a  remarkable celebration originating out of a cultural and ethnic mixing pot of Indonesian, Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Thai, and the natives population all melded together. This cultural mixing was a product of the long running lucrative Indian Ocean basin trade network. The Ming empire sought direct imperial control of this  enormously profitable network, which launched Zheng He's journey.

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