I planned to pass Malaysia on the way to Indonesia and I planned to pass through Georgetown. To my surprise I discovered that my Lao's friend Vik is also on his way to Georgetown. Apparently he was heading for Thaipusam, Hindu festival. I was happy to meet him again and to join this festival as well.
In Georgetown there is a huge Hindu minority. The festival started with a parade crawling around the city streets.
In front local people were crushing coconuts to wash out a road for the Shiva statue. Coconut shells were cleaned up by a cleaning team very efficiently. So only the coconut milk stayed on the road together with overwhelming smell in the air.
Afterward there were musicians and men dancing Kavadi Attam. This dance is ceremonial warship of the Tamil god of war. Dancers were very much involved into their dance and quite a few they manage to get into trans where they were loosing the control over their body. When it happened they were stopped by the others in order not to crushed into the crowed and each other...
And finally there was a huge platform of Shiva. The platform was stopping from time to time and people were bringing offerings and got blessed. The parade was slowly moving through the city for 18h and finally reaching the most important Hindu in the neighborhood outside the city.
In the evening we went to this temple. People were also caring milk container to offer it straight to the God in the temple situated on the hill. Some devotees looked very exhausted as they would walk many kilometers with the heavy container on their head. There was also one guy climbing the whole way up the hill on his knees. All those people had most likely particular request to their God or were asking for prosperous next year. At the temple the milk was used to wash the God statue. In the whole temple there was an overwhelming smell of milk.
About second day of festival you can read here, below the photo album from the first day.
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