CAVES OF MALASIA
Today, from our 5-star luxury hotel Asia Gardens we would like to invite you to travel with us to a country that we have not visited yet.
This country has a wide range of hidden treasures, from wonderful beaches and islands to impressive buildings like the Petronas Towers. But today we would like to show you a place we have no words to describe: the Batu Caves.
This wonder of nature is located in the Gombak district, around 13 kilometres from Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, and it is 400 years old. The caves were named after the river that flows in that area.
These wonders of nature are one of the most significant Hindu sanctuaries outside India dedicated to Murugan, whom we will tell you about a little later on. The Thaipusam Hindu festival is celebrated every year and it attracts Hindus not only from Malaysia but also from India, Singapore and Australia. In 2007, 1.5 million pilgrims came to the festival, and so it became one of the largest Hindu gatherings.
272 steps built in 1920 lead to the Temple. The steps had to be redone some years ago due to the large number of tourists that visit the caves each year. The most important temple is the one known as “Cathedral Cave” as it has several Hindu sanctuaries and a large domed roof typical of a cathedral.
As we mentioned earlier, this place is dedicated to the god Murugan represented by an almost 43-metre-tall statue, one of the tallest in the world. The statue can be seen guarding the entrance of the temple.
God Murugan is only known by that name in Malaysia, in Hindu religion he is called Karttiyeka. He is the son of god Shiva and goddess Parvati, the most important gods in India as we have said many a times before in our blog (links). He is known as the god of war as he defeated full armies of demons.
It is worth mentioning the fact that in this magical place there are plenty of monkeys who run free. They come close to greet tourists, although we have been advised to watch out as some of them have been trained to steal.
We hope you have learnt a little more about this country that we would like to bring to you more often. At the Asia Gardens we are delighted to be your own personal source of information when it comes to Asia. We hope to see you soon so we can teach you a little more.
