Vedanth, Pavani, Nireep and myself took a tour from Embassy hotel to Batu caves. Beautiful scenic drive from hotel to Batu caves,. We passed through city looking at Petronas twin towers. Then went to Batik work shop. Only one shop is open as it is public holiday in Kuala Lumpur for Chinese New Year. Looking at the cloths and designs I remembered Padma (my sister) as she did a lot of Batik work with very artistic designs.
From there went to Batu Caves Murugan temple. Batu Caves were discovered in 1892 and are located approx 13 kms north of Kuala Lumpur in Negeri Selangor.The Caves are made of Limestone, 400 metres long, and 100metres high. These caves are thought to be 400 million years old.
There are three of them altogether. The biggest cave is called Cathedral cave, and its here where you find a Hindu Temple. This is a very sacred place for the Malay Hindus and is their focal point for the Thaipusam Festival (on Makara sankranthi), which attracts 1.5million people.As you approach Batu Caves you will see the towering statue of Lord Muruga from a kilometer away.
This is the tallest statue of a Hindu deity in Malaysia. It is also the tallest Lord Murugan statue in the world. The statue is 42.7meters (141 feet). Located at the Sri Subramaniar Temple at the foot of Batu Caves, Declared open on Jan 29, 2006.
Our guide told us that Fifteen sculptors from India and 15 other general workers took more than three years to build the statue. Construction Materials used to build the statue are 1,550 cubic meters of concrete, 250 tons of steel bars and 300 liters of gold paint from Thailand.
You can see thousands of pigeons welcoming you to the temple. People feed them and I remembered watching this sight in many movies (telugu).
To reach Cathedral cave (temple cave), visitors have to climb stairs consisting of very steep 272 steps. Anyway, when reaching the top, do not forget to look at the sight – very nice view of the city in daylight must be wonderful at night.
Once we entered the temple cave it was cold and nice. The six abodes of Muruga are well-depicted along the cave walls, while stalactites and limestone suspended from the top act as “thoranam”, decorative pieces.
Big walk way both sides and people every where. There are further more steps to reach the temple in the middle (Ganesha enclosure) where we find lord Ganesh and Balasubramanya idols.
The min we reached there (around 4:30 PM) priests started givinig abhyangana snanam with sandal wood, milk, honey, turmeric, fruits and water. Heard from someone that people pray here for children. We saw many people carrying bottle of milk and hand it over to the priest for bathing the holy images with the milk. We are very blessed to see the whole process when nadaswaram is played during the process.
After going on few more steps there comes the subrahmania swamy temple.
The consecrated statue of Sri Subramania Swamy is installed (prathista) in 1891. Since 1892, the Thaipusam festival held on full-moon day (which falls in between January 15 and February 14 or Makara sankranthi) has been celebrated.
We took a pradakshinam (holy walking around the temple) around the swamy temple and sat there to enjoy the beauty of the temple. There is an opening in the cave which is lighting up our area. I guess it must be beautiful when Sunlight streaks through the top opening in the cave.
While coming down we saw a python and a yellow snake. People are taking pictures and holding them. Vedu touched the yellow snake but Nireep hesitated in the beginning and then touched it too. I bought a Murugon idol to remember my visit.
We came down and saw many more temples around the cave. At the base of the hill are two more cave temples, Art Gallery Cave and Museum Cave, both of which are full of Hindu statues and paintings. We went to Vishnu temple (also known as Tirupathi of Malaysia) which is closed.
So we prayed to the gopuram and started walking towards the Ramayana cave. The Ramayana Cave is situated to the extreme left as one faces the sheer wall of the hill. On the way to the Ramayana Cave, there is a 50-foot (15 m) tall murti of Hanuman and a temple dedicated to Hanuman.
The Ramayana Cave depicts the story of Rama in a chronicle manner quite effectively.
The cave is well lit and allows the visitor to stroll leisurely viewing the depictions along the irregular walls of the cave. One might experience the feeling that one is strolling through the giant intestines of the mighty demon, Kumbhakarann, brother of King Ravana of Lanka.It was an unforgetable experience to come to Batu Caves, one of the most important places to Hindus. It is hughe, it is enormous, it is crowded, it is hot. And it is beautiful!!
