Celebrated on the 10th month of the Hindu calendar, Thaipusam, which falls in January or February each year, is a day of penance and thanksgiving for Hindus. The festival is celebrated in honour of Lord Muruga (also known as Lord Subramaniam) and Hindus believe that sins can be cleansed during Thaipusam.
Devotees prepare for the celebration by cleansing themselves through prayer and fasting approx-48 days before Thaipusam. Several hundred devotees spear their cheeks with long, shiny steel rods - often a metre long - and pierce their chests and backs with small, hook-like needles in penance.
Thaipusam is also celebrated in this form in Singapore, Thailand, Mauritius and other countries where Tamil workers migrated.
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| A Hindu devotee performs a ritual bath during the Thaipusam festival at Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur. |
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| From thaipusam 20.1.2011 |
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| A Hindu devotee performs a ritual bath during the Thaipusam festival at Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur. |
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| From thaipusam 20.1.2011 |
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| Hindu devotees shave their heads before joining a procession to climb the 272 steps up the Batu Caves Temple during the Thapusam festival at Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur. |
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| From thaipusam 20.1.2011 |
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| Hindu devotees shave their heads before joining a procession to climb the 272 steps up the Batu Caves Temple during the Thapusam festival at Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur. |
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| From thaipusam 20.1.2011 |
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