Dousing is the practice of making something or someone wet by throwing liquid over them, e.g., by pouring water, generally cold, over oneself. A related practice is

ice swimming Winter swimming is the activity of swimming during the winter season, typically in outdoor locations (open water swimming) or in unheated pools or lidos. In colder countries, it may be synonymous with ice swimming, when the water is frozen ov ...

. Some consider cold water dousing to be a form of asceticism.

Cold water dousing

Cold water dousing is used to "shock" the body into a kind of

fever Fever, also referred to as pyrexia, is defined as having a temperature above the normal range due to an increase in the body's temperature set point. There is not a single agreed-upon upper limit for normal temperature with sources using val ...

. The body's reaction is similar to the

mammalian diving reflex The diving reflex, also known as the diving response and mammalian diving reflex, is a set of physiological responses to immersion that overrides the basic homeostatic reflexes, and is found in all air-breathing vertebrates studied to date. It o ...

or possibly temperature biofeedback. Several meditative and awareness techniques seem to share similar effects with elevated temperature, such as

Tummo In Tibetan Buddhism, ''tummo'' (; sa, चण्डाली, caṇḍālī) is the fierce goddess of heat and passion. Tummo is found in the Mahasiddha Krishnacarya and the '' Hevajra Tantra'' texts. Tummo is also a tantric practice for in ...

. Compare cold water dousing with

. The effects of dousing are usually more intense and longer-lasting than just a cold shower. Ending a shower with cold water is an old

naturopathic Naturopathy, or naturopathic medicine, is a form of alternative medicine. A wide array of pseudoscientific practices branded as "natural", "non-invasive", or promoting "self-healing" are employed by its practitioners, who are known as naturop ...

tradition. There are those who believe that this fever is helpful in killing harmful

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometr ...

and leaving the hardier beneficial bacteria in the body.

National traditions

Burma

Thingyan Thingyan (, ; Arakanese: ; from Sanskrit '' saṁkrānti,'' which means "transit f the Sun from Pisces to Aries) is the Burmese New Year Festival that usually occurs in middle of April. Thingyan is the first ever water festival celebrated in ...

(Water Festival) was celebrated from 13 to 17 April in 2001 and the rituals included dousing.

Japan

* Some Japanese ascetic practices, as with

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

misogi is a Japanese Shinto practice of ritual purification by washing the entire body. Misogi is related to another Shinto purification ritual called '' Harae'' – thus both being collectively referred to as . Background Every year, many people ...

practices, include dousing. This is seen, for example, with some

Aikido Aikido ( , , , ) is a modern Japanese martial art that is split into many different styles, including Iwama Ryu, Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shuren Kai, Shodokan Aikido, Yoshinkan, Renshinkai, Aikikai and Ki Aikido. Aikido is now practiced in aroun ...

martialists.

Morihei Ueshiba was a Japanese martial artist and founder of the martial art of aikido. He is often referred to as "the founder" or , "Great Teacher/Old Teacher (old as opposed to ''waka (young) sensei'')". The son of a landowner from Tanabe, Ueshiba st ...

was known to practice cold water

. * Kamakura, Japan has a temple whose

Nichiren Buddhist Nichiren Buddhism ( ja, 日蓮仏教), also known as Hokkeshū ( ja, 法華宗, meaning ''Lotus Sect'') is a branch of Mahayana Buddhism based on the teachings of the 13th-century Japanese Buddhist priest Nichiren (1222–1282) and is one of ...

priests in training practice a ritual of 100 days of fasting, meditation and walking which ends with stripping to loincloths and dousing with ice cold water.

Poland

Śmigus-dyngus ''Śmigus-dyngus''; hu, Vízbevető; german: Smigus dyngus; uk, поливаний понеділок; sr, Vodeni ponedeljak () is a Roman Catholic celebration held on Easter Monday across Central Europe, and in small parts of Eastern and So ...

(or Dyngus Day) is a festival held on Easter Monday, traditionally celebrated by boys throwing water over girls.

Russia

Jumping in freezing lakes,

, is an old Russian tradition that goes hand in hand with going to

banya Banya may refer to: Places Australia * Banya, Queensland, a locality in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia Bulgaria * Banya, Blagoevgrad Province, a thermal spa and mountain resort in southwest Bulgaria * Banya, Burgas P ...

, a sauna-like bath. Some douse with a bucket of cold water. The bucket is filled with water and left out overnight. They then walk with it outside and spill it over themselves. Preferences include being barefoot outside on the earth, and performing dousing at certain times and more frequently when ill. For some, dousing accompanies

fasting Fasting is the abstention from eating and sometimes drinking. From a purely physiological context, "fasting" may refer to the metabolic status of a person who has not eaten overnight (see " Breakfast"), or to the metabolic state achieved after ...

(absence of all food and water) as an alternate means for the body to obtain water. Some follow cold water dousing with air-drying outside or in wintertime taking a "snow bath" by rubbing handfuls of snow on the body or lying/moving in it. *

Porfiry Ivanov Porfiry Korneyevich Ivanov (Russian: Порфирий Корнеевич Иванов) (February 20, 1898 – April 10, 1983) was a Russian mystic whose beliefs have attained a cult status, with followers estimated in the tens of thousands. He was ...

's health system includes cold water dousing. * Cold water dousing is practiced by some Systema martialists.

Thailand

Songkran Songkran is a term derived from the Sanskrit word, ' (or, more specifically, ') and used to refer to the traditional New Year celebrated in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, parts of northeast India, parts of Vietnam an ...

is a popular festival in April which includes dousing using water. It is also celebrated by the Dai people in

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

Province in China, and in Laos,

Cambodia Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...

and

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

during the traditional New Year.

References

{{Reflist Asceticism Bathing