Joanna James
Located in Selangor, Malaysia is the majestic Batu Caves, a place of worship and veneration of the Hindus. It is a major tourist attraction that lies in proximity to many a hotel in Kuala Lumpur.
Batu Caves are one of the well-known Hindu shrines outside of India. In 2017 alone, an estimated number of 1.6 million worshippers have visited the site during Thaipusam, which is a festival celebrated to honour Lord Murugan in a grandiose manner. Lord Murugan, son of Lord Shiva, is hailed as the Hindu God of War. Thaipusam is celebrated to pay homage and show gratitude to Lord Murugan for prayers well-answered. A large, hectic procession move among the shrines with devotees that have gone for extreme lengths and inflicted self-mutilation on behalf of Lord Murugan. The festival also commemorates the gift of a spear, or rather, a vel, to Lord Murugan by his mother, Parvati, the Hindu goddess of love and fertility.
Pilgrims and tourists of the Batu caves initially had to reach the caves by climbing 272 wooden steps. These steps were first built in the 1920s and were replaces by concrete steps with time. In August 2018, the steps were renovated once again using multi-coloured paint, which has given the site a rainbow-like appearance. Since then, the Batu Caves have gained more popularity, especially among the Instagrammers across the globe. However, this massive renovation has led to controversial issues with the country’s heritage authority.
Towering over the visitors of the Batu Caves is the iconic statue of Lord Murugan, which was made out of 1550 cubic metres of concrete that are supported by 250 tonnes of steel bars. Nearly 300 litres of gold paint was used to give the statue its golden lustre. The temple in the caves is a dedication to Lord Murugan, which explains the gigantic monument of the same deity in front of the cave entrance. Head over to visit this magnificent and vibrant site of reverence during your stay in Malaysia at properties such as PARKROYAL Kuala Lumpur.
The humongous Batu Caves in Malaysia remained untouched for many a year before it was declared as a site of Hindu reverence. The limestones that form the caves have existed for over 400 million years.
But it has been discovered that the cave entrances were used as occasional respites by the indigenous Besisi people who have gone hunting in the area. After 1860, the Chinese settlers started excavating the cave site in search of guano, excrement of bats, as fertilization for their cultivations. The Batu caves were revealed to the world by William T. Hornaday, an American taxidermist.
In 1891, K. Thamboosamy Pillai, a descendent of the Indian immigrants in Malaysia, installed the deity of the Lord Murugan within the cave premises. During his search for a suitable place of Hindu worship, Thamboosamy has come across the mouth of the Batu Caves, which strongly resembles the head of Lord Murugan’s celestial spear. It has inspired him to select the Batu Cave premises to build a temple site for Lord Murugan.
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