 |
KUALA LUMPUR: Hindu devotees and tourists flocked to Batu Cave Thursday to mark a colourful Hindu festival of Thaipusam. The worshippers converged on the spectacular limestone cave on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur and the centrepiece of the annual 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 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 Datuk Seri 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. The festival is also celebrated in several other parts the country.
-thestar online.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.