01A Vel in the cave
Tamil labourers and traders came to Malaya in the nineteenth century, many to the rubber estates and the railways. K. Thamboosamy Pillai, a leading Tamil merchant of Kuala Lumpur, saw that the great cave mouth on the limestone hill looked like the tip of a Vel, the spear of Murugan, and in 1891 he installed a murti of Murugan in the Temple Cave. The first Thaipusam was held in 1892. The cave is 100 m up the cliff and the ceiling, open in places to the sky, rises more than 90 m.
02Thaipusam
Thaipusam falls on the full moon of the Tamil month of Thai, in January or February, and marks the day Parvati gave Murugan the Vel. At Batu Caves the silver chariot leaves the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in Kuala Lumpur the night before and arrives at dawn. Through the next day devotees who have fasted for weeks climb the steps carrying pots of milk or kavadi, some with hooks and small vels piercing the skin. Crowds are counted in lakhs.
03The golden Murugan
In January 2006 a statue of Murugan 42.7 m high, covered in gold paint, was unveiled at the foot of the steps. It took about three years to build, and sculptors came from Tamil Nadu. In 2018 the 272 steps were painted in bright colours. Smaller cave shrines at the base, the Ramayana Cave and the Art Gallery Cave, hold painted figures from the Puranas and the Itihasa.
The life of this place
- 1891K. Thamboosamy Pillai installed the murti of Murugan in the Temple Cave.
- 1892The first Thaipusam festival was held at the caves.
- January 2006The 42.7 m golden statue of Murugan was unveiled.
13 km north of Kuala Lumpur, with its own KTM Komuter station. Shoulders and knees must be covered; wraps are lent at the foot of the steps.
