Malaysia’s Hindus celebrate Thaipusam
Print Edition
MORE than a million Hindus in Malaysia celebrated the colorful Thaipusam festival yesterday, thronging temples to display their devotion with wince-inducing body piercing and offerings to the deity Murugan.
Hundreds of thousands converged on Batu Caves, an important religious site for Tamil Hindus on Kuala Lumpur’s outskirts, with many walking up to 10 hours to the site, capped by climbing 272 steps to its limestone hilltop shrine.
Many show their fervor through mind-over-matter feats of body piercing including long skewers stuck through their flesh in a form of penance, or by bearing the elaborately decorated home-made frames called “kavadi”.
A kavadi can weigh as much as 100 kilograms and are typically affixed to a person’s body using sharp metal spikes dug into the skin.
Countless other yellow-robed devotees carried offerings of milk pots or coconuts. The coconuts are eventually smashed.
Devi Vijarengam, who arrived at the caves with a pot of milk and accompanied by her husband, said they had been married six years and would ask Murugan to bless them with a child.
“We did our prayers and we hope next year we will have a baby and bring him here,” she said.
Thaipusam marks the day when Hindu mythology says the goddess Pavarthi gave her son Lord Murugan a lance to slay evil demons.
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