IN PICTURES | Why do people worship Kamakhya, the bleeding Goddess of Assam?

The four-day Ambubachi festival marks Kamakhya's yearly menstrual cycle, and it brings hundreds of thousands of devotees to the temple in Gauhati.

Kamakhya, one of the many traditions of Hinduism, celebrates the woman's power to give birth. (Photo | AP) 

How one chooses a deity out of the pantheon of gods and goddesses is varied — some families have traditionally worshipped one for generations, some choose according to their understanding, some look for a specific power of a deity to yield a desired result, some are influenced by their guru, or religious leader. (Photo | AP)

The four-day Ambubachi festival marks Kamakhya's yearly menstrual cycle, and it brings hundreds of thousands of devotees to the temple in Gauhati in Assam state. (Photo | AP)

The temple doors are closed to devotees for the first three days of the festival, akin to the way menstruating women are often kept in seclusion in this region. Menstruation is associated with impurity in large parts of India and conversations around it are still taboo. (Photo | AP)

Rituals on the fourth day include purifying the deity with panchamrita, the five nectars: honey, cow milk, liquid cane sugar, yoghurt and clarified butter. Devotees receive a piece of red cloth that was used to cover a sculptured representation of the goddess for those three days and is believed to have been moistened with her menstrual fluid. (Photo | AP)

Devotees perform rituals beside idols of goddess Kamakhya during Ambubachi festival at the Kamakhya temple in Gauhati, India. (Photo | AP)