Ethnic Indian Malaysians yesterday massed in Hindu temples across the country to celebrate the annual Thaipusam festival, months after the relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions that had barred large crowds.
Tens of thousands of people gathered at the Batu Caves temple just outside Kuala Lumpur over the weekend, many piercing their bodies with hooks and skewers in an act of devotion to the deity Lord Murugan.
The event commemorates the day when the goddess Parvathi gave her son Lord Murugan a powerful lance to fight evil demons.
Photo: Reuters
Bearing offerings such as milk pots and heavy ornate metal structures called kavadis, devotees walked barefoot up 272 steps to reach the temple — an important religious site for local Hindus.
This year’s celebration was the liveliest seen in recent years, with devotees glad at being allowed to return to observe their rituals.
“[Previously] we couldn’t do our vows due to the COVID-19 lockdown,” Kupuvanes Tetchanamwoorthy, 45, told reporters. “This year, we could come here and take our vows... I feel so grateful.”
Photo: AFP
Some devotees appeared to be in a state of trance as they carried the kavadis, which can weigh as much as 100kg.
Others pierced their bodies with skewers or hung multiple hooks and chains from their bodies in an act of penance.
Prior to Thaipusam, devotees typically hold daily prayer sessions, abstain from sex and stick to a strict vegetarian diet for weeks.
“When we pray for something, we need to give him [Lord Murugan] back something as a blessing,” devotee Bahvani Kumaran, 63, told reporters. “Sometimes with your vow, you carry the kavadi, or carry the milk. Whichever way, it is something that you give back to him.”
While more than half of Malaysia’s 32 million people are Muslim, the country is home to about 2 million ethnic Indians.
Lord Murugan is particularly revered in southern India and among ethnic Tamil communities in Southeast Asia, with Thaipusam also celebrated in India and Singapore.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in
REGIONAL TENSIONS: China boosted spending on its military for the 29th straight year, raising it by 6% to US$296bn, while Taiwan spent US$16.6bn, an 11% increase Global military expenditure recorded its steepest increase in over a decade last year, reaching an all-time high of US$2.4 trillion as wars and rising tensions fueled spending across the world, researchers said yesterday. Military spending rose across the globe with particularly large increases in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, according to a new report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). “Total military spending is at an all-time high ... and for the first time since 2009, we saw spending increase across all five geographical regions,” SIPRI senior researcher Nan Tian said. Military spending rose by 6.8 percent last year, the