Thaipusam

Thousands of Hindu devotees thronged Batu Cave during the Thaipusam festival. Thaipusam is a celebration of the beautiful Indian culture with strong traditions, which is unique and performed at in a grand scale at Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia. Thaipusam is basically celebrated for Lord Murugan victory in defeating the evil.

( refer Wikipeadia for more descriptions and details of this event)

The whole event is so colourful and people pay their respect to Lord Muruga who is sitting in the Cave up high in that limestone hill .

The 272 steps leading a cross between a burden and an offering. They are a way of asking for divine favour, or offering gratitude for an already granted favour.

Difficult task of pinnacle, little milk pots hooked on the body. It's a part of the gratitude paid to Lord Murugan.

Some also carry hot fire pots in bare hands and walk miles and kilometers before they climb those stairs to the cave.

There are other ways to offer respect and gratitude to Lord Murugan which is different , some of it are challenging and also painful. But they the devotees devoted to him do not feel the pain as if they have the Lord's blessings.

There are many beautiful kavadi's as the kavadi arrive at the foot of the 272 step stairway leading up to the Temple Cave, the devotees has to make the arduous climb against gravity- against the press of the bustling masses of the kavadi on their shoulders.

These kavadi's could weigh 50kg to 100kg in weight and are decorated to the creativity of the carriers.

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The children also carry kavadi's which are small and cute .These children above are dressed like Lord Murugan to pay respect to him.

Throng of crowd in Batu Caves were remarkable .

There were no room to move as you don't even feel of yourself walking. The crowd pushes you along and there is no U turns. If someone drops there would stempede. The crowd was that big and they were people from different walks of life. Even there were some foreigner experiencing this event.

This is how "paal kudaam", a pot filled with milk is carried on the head and walked up those 272 steps into the cave. It's the easiest way of an offering done to Lord Muruga.

There are other ways to show our gratitude, such as walking barefooted , shaving our heads. It might be easy but the pots becomes heavy as we are walking up the stairs and it's challenges us.

These are the left overs of the garlands worn by the devotees that have paid their respect to Lord Muruga which is left behind once the vows are completed.

Beautiful Silver Chariot shines. 

 This silver chariot there are three of this kind in this country .one in Batu Caves, one in Penang and one in Teluk Intan. All three a replicated in same design.This chariot will start it journey from the KL Mariamman temple and reaches Batu Caves in wee hours of early morning. There will be huge crowd of devotees walking with this chariot till the end of it's journey.

 It was a carnival-like atmosphere at the temple surrounding with colourful stalls set up to sell indian clothing, toys and vegetrarian food. There were also stalls providing free drinks to quinch the thirst and also other organizations and families do also provide free food which is know as "Annathanam" , foodwas given to all devotees generously. It's belief with the Hindu to give/donate food generously .

Thaipusam is an event that is marked in Malaysian calender to look forward every year.