Yesterday was Thai Pusam – the most important festival for the Indian community in Malaysia. The festival is celebrated in honor of the Hindu God Karthikeya – the younger son of Shiva and falls around the full moon day in the Tamil month of Thai. There is some dispute about what Thai Pusam actually commemorates – several versions exist, but the most popular one is that it is the birthday of Karthikeya.

Thai Pusam is a giant carnival – an long stretch of road leading to the local Karthikeya temple is cordoned off, and a large number of people – wearing equally large quantities of jewellery – congregate for a few hours of fun tinted with devotion. In Penang, in spite of the constant drizzle, this year’s celebration was apparently one of the best attended – at least a hundred thousand people showed up. The street leading to the Waterfall Temple was lined with makeshift “water tents” – most sponsored by multinationals – that provided colorful liquids for free to anyone that showed up.

Among the visitors that passed on the refreshments were the Western tourists armed with Sony Handycams and increasingly incredulous expressions – because Thaipusam has another side to it. Belief has it that Karthikeya would grant the wishes of people who visit His temple on Thaipusam bearing burdens (called Kavadis) and over the years people have interpreted the belief as meaning that the more pain you inflict on yourself – increasing the burden – the more the odds are of your wish being granted.

At its simplest [the kavadi] may entail carrying a pot of milk, but mortification of the flesh by piercing the skin, tongue or cheeks with vel skewers is also common. The most spectacular practice is the vel kavadi, essentially a portable altar up to two meters tall, decorated with peacock feathers and attached to the devotee through 108 vels pierced into the skin on the chest and back. Fire walking and flagellation may also be practiced. It is claimed that devotees are able to enter a trance, feel no pain, do not bleed from their wounds and have no scars left behind. However, some of the more extreme masochistic practices have been criticized as dangerous and contrary to the spirit and intention of Hinduism.

The largest Thaipusam celebrations take place in Malaysia and Singapore. The temple at the Batu Caves, near Kuala Lumpur, often attracts over one million devotees and tens of thousands of tourists. The procession to the caves starts at the MahaMariamman Temple in the heart of the city and proceeds for 15 kilometers to the caves, an 8-hour journey culminating in a flight of 272 steps to the top. In Malaysia, although rare, scenes of people from different ethnic groups and faiths bearing “kavadi” can also be seen. Interestingly, Thaipusam is also increasingly being celebrated by the ethnic Chinese in Malaysia. [Link]

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An elaborate refreshment tent; there must’ve been several hundreds of these along the street.

The water tents have another purpose too – avenues of distraction for the kavadi bearing young men. Some tents – sponsored by conservative multinationals, I would assume – played devotional music, but most blared tinny sounding music using huge speakers. The delirious devotees bearing kavadis would stop at a tent, do a frenzied little jig, drink a cup of water and then move on to the next tent. Around them, other young men not bearing anything would just dance and ogle at the young women in sarees. The rain certainly helped the oglers.

Loud music, wet clothes, frenzied dancing, girls watching.

One of the simpler Kavadis, attached to the body by piercings

And then, there were the really devoted devotees.

Pain

Each of the little containers is pierced into his skin .. he was posing happily for everyone with a camera.

After the kavadis, the most popular form of mortification seemed to be this: A cluster of ropes is attached to the back using hooks, and another member of the family “rides” the person in front, yanking hard at the ropes.

And finally, the most mortifying of them all – a group of guys pulling a heavy chariot using hooks pierced into their backs.

These are the charioteers

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And this is the chariot.

As we left, I couldn’t help praying silently : I just hope all the pain was worth it.