MALAYSIA, February 3, 2015 (Bangkok Post): More than a million Hindus thronged temples throughout Malaysia on Tuesday to celebrate Thaipusam, a colorful annual religious festival. Celebrations in the capital Kuala Lumpur centered, as they have for 125 years, on the spectacular Batu caves complex on the city’s outskirts, which many Hindus walked up to ten hours to reach in an annual pilgrimage.
Bearing gifts for the Deity Murugan, countless yellow-robed devotees carried milk pots or coconuts — the latter of which are smashed as offerings. Others took part in the 9-mile procession of a silver chariot from a temple in the city centre to the caves — an important religious site for Tamil Hindus — capped by the final 272-step climb to a temple in the limestone outcropping.
Celebrated also in India, Singapore and other areas with significant Hindu Tamil communities, the festival is marked with particular relish in multi-cultural Malaysia. Many show their fervor by bearing the elaborately decorated frames called Kavadi that can weigh as much as 220 lbs. and are typically affixed to a person’s body using sharp metal spikes dug into their flesh in a form of penance. About 1.6 million people were expected to visit the Batu caves on Tuesday, which also draws tens of thousands of tourists.