Malaysia’s Hindus mark Thaipusam festival with fervor

MALAYSIA (AFP) — Hundreds of thousands of Hindus flocked to temples across Malaysia to celebrate the Thaipusam festival Tuesday, with many piercing their bodies with hooks and skewers in acts of devotion.

Thaipusam is marked with particular zest in multicultural Malaysia, a Muslim-majority nation where ethnic Indians make up about seven percent of the 34 million population.

One of the most important religious festivals for primarily Tamil Hindus, the event commemorates the day when the goddess Parvathi gave her son Lord Murugan a powerful lance to fight evil demons.

The festival is also celebrated in India, Singapore and other areas with large Hindu Tamil communities.

Celebrations centered, as they have for more than a century, at the Batu Caves complex on the outskirts of the capital Kuala Lumpur.

Devotees bearing offerings such as milk pots or carrying elaborate and heavy metal structures called “kavadis” walked barefoot up 272 steps to reach the temple at Batu Caves.