Thaipusam 大寶森節 - Surprise your eyes

If you're a devout prayer of Hinduism, go to Thaipusam.
If you're a photographer, go to Thaipusam.
If you're a tourist, go to Thaipusam.
What is Thaipusam? 什麼是大寶森節?

Thaipusam (Tamil: தைப்பூசம்) is one of the Hindu festival celebrated mostly by the Tamil community in Malaysia besides the Deepavali celebration. Thaipusam is set on the full moon (Pusam) in the Tamil month of Thai (January/February) and that's how the word Thaipusam came from.


If you're that LUCKY to come to visit Malaysia in the end of January or the beginning of February (different every year) and happened to be in Kuala Lumpur, you can (try to) join the Thaipusam parade and have a life-time-experience here in Malaysia.

It all started here at Sri Maha Mariamman Temple (just a few blocks away from Petaling Street Chinatown) the day before Thaipusam. Just when the star rises to the highest point at midnight, the devotees show their sanctity to Lord Murugan by walking (some on bare feet) 15kilometres from the temple to Batu Caves, which is an 8-hour journey culminating in a flight of 272 steps to the top.





Thaipusam is a grand festival for the Tamil community, just like Christmas to Christian and Prophet Muhammad's Birthday to Muslims. It is believed that Thaipusam marks the birthday of Lord Murugan. (Though more people says that Vaikhasi Vishakam, which falls in the Vaikhasi month (May/June), is Murugan's birthday)

Devotees prepare for the celebration by cleansing themselves through prayer and fasting approx-48 days before Thaipusam. Kavadi-bearers have to perform elaborate ceremonies at the time of assuming the kavadi and at the time of offering it to Murugan. The kavadi-bearer observes celibacy and take only pure, Satvik food, once a day, while continuously thinking of God.


On the day of the festival, there's a booth at Batu Caves where you will see a lot of devotees, no matter men or women or even infants, shaving their heads to undertake a pilgrimage. They will carry a pot of milk on their heads as the simplest type of kavadi (burdens), signifying offers to God.


The festival actually commemorates the occasion when Parvati gave Murugan a vel "spear" so he could vanquish the evil demon Soorapadam. So very often on the way to the top of Batu Caves, you will hear devotees shouting "vel, vel, vetri vel" which translated means "the spear, the spear, the invincible spear". This is to gain the strength and protection from the God, and also as a symbol of good over evil.

Piercing through cheek & tongue

kavadi