Thaipusam

Since we are living in a multi racial country, we decided not only to discuss about a chinese culture but both "Chap Goh Meh" and "Thaipusam" To some of us, it was actually our first time going to Thaipusam. May Kwoon for example was shocked and she was staring into each and every cavadi's like they were gold. It is amazing when you look into someone's culture because it is entirely new to you. The cultures may be different or it may be similar, but it is always magnificent to learn new things and especially when we experience the whole new culture with our own eyes.

First let us start with the original idea of celebrating thaipusam. It's original purpose was to celebrate the birth of Lord Murugan, the God of War, also the son of Shiva and Parvati. As time passes by, eventually like all cultures, it began to differ little by little. However, the meaning behind Thaipusam is still there.

We passed by the road along botanical garden at noon and realised that there was a few stalls selling drinks and food. The crowd was not much and it was not any lively.


However, it totally became a drastic change when night falls. In just a blink of an eye, the whole road is filled with people from different colours [of course most of them are indians], comes from every size and shape and different cultures. Music began filling our ears and just like in hindustan movies, indians are well known of their wondrous ability in dancing and it has been proven true in this thaipusam.

Look at the corwd from out side. it was hard to walk from one end to another.
This are one of the statues that was put up.

Even the reinforcement came to make sure that the traffic is smooth.
Thus, to make sure there is no commotion.

Back to the Thaipusam celebration, we saw many new form of beliefs compared to ours [for those non-hindus] it was a one in a lifetime experience and some would like to thank Miss Cheryl because if it was not for the sake of this assignment, we may actually never bother to attend this event. An event initially was just for the sake of assignment became a lifetime experience.


There were parade cars and this is one of the parade statues.
Comment from MK sayin, "this is a little similar to Wesak Day when we parade too"


This is a cavadi. In other countries, cavadi is pierced to their whole body but over here in Penang, most of them wear a modern cavadi that was already ready-made and they had some piercings on their cheeks. Those with "modern-made" cavadies danced with the rythyms of the musics.

This is the front view of a cavadi wearer. This cavadi wearer is still very young and this proves that even youth nowadays do participate themselves in religious activities.
Not only that, there were also some shocking cultures that never occured to our mind. The piercing of bodies was widely known and we were very sure that we would be able to see them. However, seeing them for real was really a different story.

This is a picture of the piercing. This piercing was done at noon.
All these people are actually having their back pierced so that they would pull the parade car forward.
This is a picture of a kid pulling a smalled parade statue.
The piercing of the entire body


Cavadi wearer from rear view


There are bands playing with olden instruments

some dancing video


When we finish walking through the whole long road, we decided to head home as the long walk was a little tiring. We were glad that this has been a memory for us. Imagine if others were to asked us about Thaipusam, and we would be so ashamed of ourselves if we could not answer them since we are after all Malaysian. It was a thrilling experience and we cant wait to explare more on other's culture.

-LMK-