On every 1 st of February, it’s a customary for Malaysian to celebrate Thaipusam. If you wonder what is Thaipusam, Wikipedia says :

Thaipusam (Tamil: தைப்பூசம்) is a Hindu festival celebrated mostly by the Tamil community on the full moon in the Tamil month of Thai (Jan/Feb). Pusam refers to a star that is at its highest point during the festival. The festival commemorates both the birthday of Lord Murugan (also Subramaniam), the youngest son of Shiva and Parvati, and the occasion when Parvati gave Murugan a vel (lance) so he could vanquish the evil demon Soorapadman.

Written by : ManMeng
Photography by : Zanoradiel

Here in Design Enterprise, we are proud to share with you one of the major festival annually. We hope that you’ll enjoy it. In Batu Caves, Gombak, Malaysia, which would be main spot for Hindus and tourists to gather for this gigantic event. It has been so many years that this festival is a must for any Hindu believers to participate.

Before the sun rises and as early as 4 A.M., you’ll find Batu Caves, which is the main destination for Thaipusam festival in the Klang Valley area, Malaysia, will be crowded with a lot of people.

As the morning sunrise approaches, you’ll see even more people will gather and set prepared to move towards the 272 steps of stairs towards the cave.

There are various people from different states would come to this place. And you will even see there are Hindus that pierce various objects into their flesh. As seen, most of the people here would take this day as a celebration, or to cleanse themselves by carrying burden around them through a pilgrimage up towards the stairs.

The golden statue that appeared on the picture are Lord Murugan was completed in January 2006 and it is one of the highest statue to be seen around Malaysia.

When the skies is clear at around 7 A.M., everyone can be seen to be at the midst of moving towards the stairs.

There are even percussions will accompany the crowd.

The massive tall burden are also known as ‘vel kavadi‘ which are normally decorated with peacock features. These structures can even go up as high as 2 metres!

Besides preparing for the ceremony, there will even be morning markets for locals or tourists to visit and purchase souvenirs.

The caves on the top of the stairs will lead you inside a huge cave that is 100 metres high from the floor and has several Hindu shrines in it.

It is known that this celebration are one of the largest gathering in history which compromises people from different places that takes place in Malaysia every year. And it is still good and suprising to see that major of young Hindu believers still practices this traditions that has been passed over for so many years despite this developing era that washed away a lot of our beliefs.

And if you’re interested to learn more about our different festivals and celebration in Malaysia. Feel free to look into the articles provided below.

Previously on DE :

• Christmas celebration in Malaysia