KUALA LUMPUR: More than one million Hindu devotees flocked to the Batu Caves temple today to mark a colourful Hindu festival during which they pierce themselves with hooks and skewers.The worshippers converged on the temple, a spectacular limestone cavern on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur and the centrepiece of the annual three-day Thaipusam festival of thanksgiving and penance.
Thaipusam commemorates the day when the Hindu Goddess Pavarthi gave her son Lord Muruga an invincible lance with which he destroyed evil demons.
Devotees do penance by carrying heavy ornate structures called kavadis as they walk barefoot up 272 steps to the Batu Caves temple, while others have their tongues, cheeks and backs pierced with hooks and skewers.
Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak hailed the festival, which also draws many tourists every year, as a celebration of Malaysia’s multiculturalism.
“Hindu devotees from overseas as well as tourists come here to appreciate the wonderful diversity of our culture and the openness in which many different faiths are expressed and practiced,” Najib wrote on his blog.
He also visited Batu Caves this morning.
The festival is also celebrated in several other parts of Malaysia.
-AFP
No comments:
Post a Comment