Source: Malaysian National News Agency
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA, January 19, 2003: While there were a number of Thai Pusam venues around Malaysia, none could rival Batu Caves for it’s size and religious spectacle. Thai Pusam is among the biggest Hindu festivals in Malaysia and throughout the country, fifteen thousand kavadis, 10,000 milk-pot bearers, and hundreds of shaven-head worshippers paid homage to Lord Muruga – the Thai Pusam Deity. At Batu Caves, kavadi bearers, with palms together and prayer on their lips, inched their way up the 272-steps to the cave-temple — the abode of Lord Muruga. Foreign tourists gasped in awe and the uniniated stared in disbelief as spike-pierced flesh and metal-skewed tongue defied logic and refused to bleed. Works Minister and MIC President Datuk S. Samy Vellu told reporters the Pahang and Kedah MIC would continue discussions to have Thaipusam declared a public holiday in the two States. This would give the Federal government the opportunity to declare a public holiday in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur. So far only five States are given a public holiday for Thaipusam — Penang, Selangor, Johore, Perak and Negeri Sembilan.