Batu Caves

Of course as usual, we as a tour guide, whenever we are at a tourists spots we should be responsible and know how to advise our tourists. So, while we are at Batu Caves it is important to advise the tourists on the followings:

1) Health Problems

For those who have health problems and also hardly exercise, it is advisable not to climb up the staircase. You will have to climb up 272 steps of staircase. For those who hardly exercise, it is easy to climb up but then later when you climb down you will know the suffering you have to go through. Your legs will be shivering upon climbing down step by step.

2) Monkeys

The monkeys are everywhere in Batu Caves. All the monkeys are wild monkeys. So, please do not feed the monkey or go near to the monkey. There have been cases where the monkeys bite the tourists. While you are carrying handbags or plastic bags, please becareful because these monkeys are snatchers as well !!!

3) Considerations When Entering The Temples

i) Footwear : There are a few temples in the Batu Caves and also at the foothill of the caves. You are allowed to enter the temples but please remember to take off your footwear upon entering the temples.

ii) Silence : Silence should be observed at all times when we are in the temples. Should we need to talk, please remember that we should speak in very low voice to show our respect to others.

iii) Females : Those females who are menstruating, please do not enter the temples because generally temples are considered as a holy place.

iv) Photography : Photography is allowed in the Indian temples but please do so sparringly especially when there is a prayer ceremony going on.

v) Shopping : When going for shopping at the shopping stalls in the Batu Caves area, please be very careful because there are just too many immitation products. I should strongly recommend you to buy the Malla hair oil which is very good to protect and care for your hair. And also the teeth powder with the "R" brand because this is the secret to the Indians' white teeth.

Thaipusam

This is the place where the Hindu devotees pray and there is a very important festival which is celebrated in a very grand scale by the Hindu worshippers known as the Thaipusam.

There are plenty stories about what Thaipusam is about. Among the most popular is that it commemorates the day Lord Siva's consort, the powerful goddess Parvathi, gives her son, Murugan, the vel (lance) to vanquish three demons and their large army which were plaguing the world.

Thaipusam falls on a full moon day in the auspicious 10th Tamil month of Thai when the constellation of Pusam, the star of well-being, rises over the eastern horizon. ( For your information, there is much similarity of the Indian calendar and the Chinese lunar calendar. That is the reason, if observed carefully, the Thaipusam is always celebrated two weeks just before the Chinese New Year. )

The main deity that the Hindu pray to is the Lord Murugan during the Thaipusam festival. The Hindus devotees will usually pray, wish and make a vow to the Lord Murugan. The devotees wish will depend on individual because it could vary in a lot of ways. Examples of the wish could be:

i) Cure from sickness and diseases

ii) Monetary gains

iii) Education

iv) Personal achievements

Preparations began long before the day of Thaipusam. Each participant had to physically, mentally and spiritually prepare himself through a 48day fast - eating only one meal a day (strictly vegetarian), conduct prayers at home and at the temple, observe abstinence from carnal pleasures, observing 'mounam'(silence) as far as possible and even endure personal hardships such as sleeping on bare floor. However many do not observe such long periods of purification and the more experienced pilgrims may fast for only seven days or so.

As the noise and sounds of the festival drew us into solidarity with the crowd, the Sami began his chants and prayers. The Sami clasped the devotee's head between his hands, continued his prayer and a flicked of his thumb on the devotee's forehead, between his brows and wham! The devotee stumbled back and was helped up by others - his facial expression, his movements, and his cries - transformed. Under a trance, he took on a manifestation of Lord Murugan's persona. Sometimes, even bystanders can fall into a trance and have to be coaxed out of this semi-conscious state by the swami. So be careful, the atmosphere could be so overpowering, It may overcome you!

As the initial trance subsided, it was replaced by a differing state of trance whereby the devotee seemed very aware of his surroundings but was reported to be in a 'form of heightened supercharged awareness'. It is a little unnerving, watching each go under trance but at the same time we could only watch in admiration of such devotion. Having checked out the entire journey from the riverbank to the shrine - it was by no means a simple feat. Only the strong spirited will be able to complete the pilgrimage. And having seen the 'burden' of which some of them had with them, the task seemed almost impossible to us.

But there they were, all the devotees - young, determined, physically fit, mentally alert and spiritually calm.

Once in a trance, trident-like spears, hooks and other sharp objects were skewered into the flesh of the devotee by the swami. The entire scene was almost surreal. The intoxicating scents of incense, the powerful mental and spiritual endurance, witnessing human being's ability to transcend to a different level of being where grisly, abominable self-mortification bears no suffering to the devoted.

For some, the Kavathi ('burdens' in Tamil) was placed on the shoulders of the devotee. The kavathi represents a miniature shrine in which Lord Murugan's idol or a framed painting of his Lord is seated. A jug of milk completes the kavathi. Chains are dropped from the central body of the kavathi and hooked onto the flesh of the bearer. The length of the spears had to be limited to a metre in consideration for other devotees. With almost a million people attending the procession, it would definitely be a grizzly affair if the lances got in the way of a jostling crowd. Others hook limes, oranges or coconuts onto their bodies.

Usually kavathi bearers will have two vels with them, one pierced through the cheeks and the other pushed through the tongue. This has a significant meaning; that the devotee has temporarily renounced the gift of speech so that he may channel his energy upon Lord Murugan and that under His protection, the devotee does not shed a drop of blood nor feel any pain.
Women carried a silver jug full of milk on their heads, some pierced vels through their cheeks and tongues and others not. The kavathi bearers were always accompanied by an entourage of relatives and friends to egg them on with dance parades, songs, musicians playing the melam(drum) and the natheswaram(flute) and the chants of 'vel,vel, vetri vel' - the symbol of the golden spear used to defeat the evil forces. The young men in the entourage formed a protective barrier round the kavathi bearers and the ones preceding the bearer engaged in dance rituals known as the 'kavathi dance', reflecting Lord Murugan's role as Lord of the Dance.

As they arrive at the shrine, the milk was poured over the golden vel and the kavathi lifted off the bearer. The Swami removed the miniature spears (vels), hooks etc, sprinkled holy ash on the slight nicks on the skin and the bearer was brought out of his trance. The vow was finally fulfilled. Faces of elation and relief all round, including bystanders like us. Feeling with them and for them through the 2 hour ordeal was indeed intense to say the least and watching them at the end of it all - their devotion, their spiritual accomplishment and the solidarity of the group and beyond has won our admiration. In spite of what we perceive as a gruesome demonstration of bodily mortification and sometimes to extremities, Thaipusam is what it is and will always be-a celebration of life, of spiritual attainment, of good presiding over evil and of Lord Murugan - the emancipator.

Over the years, curious British, American and Australian medical experts have come to observe and speculate. Some think the white ash smeared on the body, the juice squeezed from the yellow lime fruit or the milk poured on the pierced areas may help to numb the skin. But most admit they have no answer.

The devotees say it is faith.

"The belief in Lord Murugan is what prevents the pain and the bleeding," says Krishna Vadyar, a priest at the temple which conducts the annual rituals.

The vel, made of metal and shaped like a lance, symbolises Murugan who is also known as Velan.
On the eve of Thaipusam, a five-ton silver-chariot bearing Lord Murugan's image and followed by a procession of several thousand people leaves the Sri Mahamariaman temple in downtown Kuala Lumpur, on a 15-kilometre trek to Batu Caves.

Mahamariamman is also another name for Parvathi, Murugan's mother.

Drums beat out trance-inducing rhythms and long wooden pipes, known as nathaswaram, croon devotional tunes in a loud carnival atmosphere.

Hundreds break coconuts and offer fruits to the God all along the chariot's meandering route. Coconuts are broken all along while the procession journey from the Sri Mahariaman temple to the Batu Cave. The coconut broken is believed to break the ego of a person.

To many Thaipusam is the day of thanksgiving or atonement for wrongs.

When the journey reached Batu Caves, the sami will chant and remove the spears from the cheek. He will immediately apply a special powder to the cheek and surprisingly there is no scar on the cheek.

The Thaipusam which is celebrated by the Indians is definitely one of a very spectacular festival. A lot of tourists will find it amazed as to how the devotees return their vows to Lord Murugan. As such, this is definitely one of the amazing festival celebrated in the world.

Sources: AllMalaysia.info and www.journeymalaysia.com/MCUL_thaipusam.htm