'Thaipusam', Hindu pluralistic festival in Penang
A. Junaidi The Jakarta Post/Penang, Malaysia
The damage caused by December's tsunami has not stopped people of various faiths and ethnic backgrounds on Penang Island, Malaysia, from celebrate the annual Thaipusam Hindu festival.
Many Chinese-Malaysians and Malays of all age groups, as well as foreign tourists, participated in the festival held at midnight on Jan. 27.
The festival commemorates the day the powerful goddess Parvathi, the Lord Siva's consort, gave her son, Murugan, a vel (lance) to fight three demons and their armies.
Lit up by the light of the full moon, participants made donations and helped distribute bread, fruits and drinks to hundreds of people, mostly Indians of Tamil descent, who paraded down the island's streets.
Meanwhile, Chinese participants lit joss sticks and prayed at Hindu temples.
This pluralistic celebration reportedly only occurs on the 285-square-kilometer island, population one million, of which more than 50 percent are Chinese-Malaysians.
"All people from various faiths are allowed to participate in the festival," said G. Muguthan, a temple leader in Georgetown, the island's main city.
Muguthan said the involvement of people from various religions and ethnicities illustrated the tolerance embraced by all living on Penang. In addition, this attitude reflected the festival's purpose -- to celebrate the death of evil and the return of peace.
He said Thaipusam was viewed by many people as a day of thanksgiving for all the blessings given by the gods over the past year -- hence the offerings of bread, fruits and drink, which symbolized these blessings.
The Tamil participants -- with many of the women wearing the traditional sari -- paraded and stopped for a while at the temples dotting the island, which played Indian tunes on a tape recorder. They prayed at each temple and received some fruits and drink.
The parade also included several trucks decorated to resemble a float, upon which traditional Indian music groups rode and entertained residents along the way.
Among the most beautiful attractions -- and which seemed to be the centerpiece of the parade -- was a chariot pulled by two white bulls, atop which was a three-meter image of Murugan.
Across Malaysia, such as at the famous Batu Cave Temple on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, Thaipusam is marked by piercing parts of the body with steel skewers.
Many devotees pierced their cheeks, chests and backs with meter-long skewers, but without bleeding and apparently without any pain, as they were in a trance. Apparently, those who take part in this ritual practice abstinence over several days leading up to the festival to prevent pain and bleeding.
Tourists watched in awe when the devotees stabbed the steels through their own flesh. The steel symbolizes the vel, Murugan's lance which was used to defeat the demons.
In Malaysia, the first festival was reportedly held in 1892 by first-generation Tamils who migrated to colonial Malaya.
However, Penang does not conduct the piercing ritual because of its violence and because it might create fear among the spectators. Instead, the Penang people invented coconut-breaking The piercing was substituted with a coconut breaking. to replace the piercing ritual.
People throw and break hundreds of coconuts on the ground at the end of the festival -- about 4 a.m. local time.
"Breaking the coconut means purifying the earth. The water that flows from the coconut 'cleans' the dirt," said Sudesu, Muguthan's son, who financed the celebration at his father's temple.
However, the joy of the festivities did not mean the people of Penang forgot their compassion for others who had suffered much, particularly victims of the tsunami, which killed 28 people on the island and more than 300,000 people in Asia.
At this year's Thaipusam, donation boxes were provided at the temples, and participants solemnly contributed to the fund-raiser for tsunami victims and their families.