Spectacular Hindu fete will again be a major attraction in Singapore
Spectacular Hindu fete will again be a major attraction in Singapore
Arnd Petry, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Singapore
One of the biggest and most spectacular Hindu festivals outside the Indian subcontinent is celebrated in the city state of Singapore with its substantial Hindu community.
Thaipusam is celebrated again on Jan. 25 in the tenth month of the Hindu calendar when the star Pusam can be seen in the skies and it is full moon.
"Thaipusam here has become a universal festival to say thank- you," says Uma Rajan, a doctor and active member of the local Indian community.
Thaipusam is the feast for the son of Shiva and Parvathi, Lord Muruga, the universal granter of wishes.
Devotees who observe this great day of penance, spiritually cleanse themselves by undergoing a month-long fast. They observe frequent prayers, consume a single vegetarian meal daily and abstain from sex.
The 24-year-old Prakash has prepared himself for the past six weeks for the festival. When the small metal hooks enter his body he catches his breath but somehow overcomes the pain.
"It is the highest sacrifice one can give to God, the pain. We learned it from our parents. It is tradition," Prakash explains. He had the wish to study and to find a job. "Everything worked out," he says.
Along with several hundred other devotees he has gathered in the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple in the Indian quarter of Singapore. The devotees stand with naked chest and dressed in wide-cut yellow trousers, present of their surroundings and at the same time far away. They are surrounded by a colorfully dressed crowd.
Loudspeaker announcements are interspersed with Indian religious music - drums, flutes and fast rhythmic sounds.
Friends dig the hooks into the skin of the men. Some wear oranges and lemons. Others have milk cartons dangling from the hooks. The men take the offerings from here over the Seragoon Road and four more streets to the Sri Thendayuthapani Temple where Muruga is at home, and a shrine has been dedicated to him.
Others pull chariots with the hooks sticking from their skin. The vehicles are loaded with Hindu statues and images of Hindu Gods. Prakash also takes part in the one-and-a-half-hour walk through the city. Friends place a Kavadi on his shoulders.
It is an up to 60 kilogram semi-circular canopy supported by a wooden rod and decorated with peacock feathers, flowers and deity images. Eventually sharp rods are stuck through his cheeks, lips and tongue. Hardly any blood flows. Then, with slow, unsteady steps Prakash starts walking.
The walk ends in front of the Sri Thendayuthapani Temple. Some of the devotees are clearly exhausted, others look fit. In the temple they dance in turning circles.
The milk cartons are handed to helpers who open them and pour the contents into a funnel. From there the white liquid, the symbol of purity, runs into the shrine of Muruga. From a small pipe behind the shrine the liquid flows away.
The devotees are released from their load on a meadow behind the temple. The wounds are immediately dabbed with ash as soon as the hooks are removed. Again no blood flows. Shortly after the rods are removed from an elderly man he sums it up: "It was pleasure and not torment".
Thaipusam is certainly one of the highlights of celebrations in the city state. But it is only one festival of many in a multi- ethnic nation which also has a large population of Malays and Chinese who practice Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism or Christianity.
The festivities start with New Year but there is also a Chinese and a Hindu New Year in February and in April/May. Then there are festivals like the Chinese mooncake festival, the Buddhist birthday of the monkey God Hanuman or Ramadan and of course Christmas.