Featured Image Credit: Amjad Khan / Amith Nag Photography/Getty
Topics: Animals, Weird, World News
Bec Oakes
Topics: Animals, Weird, World News
In a feat that'd have most of saying 'absolutely not,' a renowned snake charmer once spent 40 days locked in a room with 400 cobras.
While many of us freak out when we spot a spider in the bathroom, Ali Khan Samsudin made a name for himself by completing daring stunts involving various dangerous creepy crawlies and creatures - including scorpions and snakes.
The Malaysian snake charmer's most notorious challenge saw him spend 12 hours a day for 40 days locked in a small room with 400 cobras.
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The feat, which he completed in the early 1990s, earned him the title of 'Snake King,' and he would even go as far as to kiss the deadly reptiles.
And in 1997, Samsudin acquired another Guinness World Record when he shut himself inside a box with 6,000 scorpions for three weeks.
Over his career, many snakes sank their fangs into him, with him suffering his first King Cobra bite when he was 21 years old - marking one of a predicted 99 bites during his life.
However, it was one snake bite in 2006 that proved to be the final blow for the daredevil performer.
Samsudin died after being bitten on his left hand by a king cobra during a performance in Kuala Lumpur.
His son, Amjad Khan, said he that his father had not been unduly worried following the bite because it had happened 'many times before.'
But Samsudin's condition worsened over the following days and he was rushed to hospital, where he later passed away.
Khan has since followed in his father's footsteps, with him saying: "This is a trade that has been passed down for five generations. It is our way of life and we can't imagine doing anything else."
But it wasn't easy, as Khan found himself scared of the reptiles after the incident.
“It was a blow to our family as he was only 48,” he told Free Malaysia Today earlier this year. “He was the one who had taken our snake show abroad, after my grandfather Dastagir Hussein and great-grandfather Maulana Khan made their stunts with their pet snakes famous in the country."
Khan had to be convinced to continue the family tradition after his father's sudden death by his mother, Mau Boh Bee, and other relatives.
“She said my father would not rest in peace if I did not continue. I finally gave in as I knew my family had created local history with their daring acts, earning them the moniker of ‘Snake Kings’.”