|
THAIPUSAM 2007. Penang
Please click here to see the photos: Thaipusam 2007, Penang.
Thaipusam (Tamil: தைப்பூசம்) is a Hindu festival celebrated mostly by the Tamil community on the full moon in the Tamil month of Thai (Jan/Feb). Pusam refers to a star that is at its highest point during the festival. The festival commemorates both the birthday of Lord Murugan (also Subramaniam), the youngest son of Shiva and Parvati, and the occasion when Parvati gave Murugan a vel (lance) so he could vanquish the evil demon Soorapadman.
Thaipusam is celebrated annually on the first day of the Pusam natchithiram (star) in the Thai month of the Hindu calendar and is held in honour of Lord Muruga.
Devotees prepare for the celebration by cleansing themselves through prayer and fasting. On the day of the festival, devotees will shave their heads undertake a pilgrimage along a set route while engaging in various acts of devotion, notably carrying various types of kavadi (burdens). At its simplest this may entail carrying a pot of milk, but mortification of the flesh by piercing the skin, tongue or cheeks with vel skewers is also common. The most spectacular practice is the vel kavadi, essentially a portable altar up to two meters tall, decorated with peacock feathers and attached to the devotee through 108 vels pierced into the skin on the chest and back. Fire walking and flagellation may also be practiced. It is claimed that devotees are able to enter a trance, feel no pain, do not bleed from their wounds and have no scars left behind.
The vel features predominantly in kavadis, decorations and piercing paraphernalia be-cause it was the weapon given to Lord Muruga by his mother, the Goddess Parvathi, to des-troy the evil demon Asura.
According to legend, devotees of Lord Shiva implored upon him to destroy the demons (asura) that were causing them hardship. Lord Shiva heeded their prayers by creating Muruga from his third eye, endowing him with a divine spear (vel). Muruga used the vel to destroy the asura for eternity, and the devotees who bear the vel between his cheeks are enacting the same act of destroying ignorance brought about by the ego.
VEL Muruga, Vel Muruga, Vel Muruga, Vel! Amidst songs of worship, ringing bells and religious chants, hundreds of kavadi bearers, milk pot carriers and heavily pierced devotees made their annual Thaipu-sam pilgrimage up the Arulmigu Balathanda-yuthapani Hilltop Temple at Waterfall Road in Penang
Many people had has their tongue pierced and carried pots of milk (paal kodam), they
were all carr-ying milk pots as an offering to Lord Muruga.
Before the Thaipusam day, Devotees started fasting and praying to prepare their self for the penance they will carry out on Thaipusam. Devotees abstain from the secular, and strive to achieve a higher level of spiritualism by devoting themselves to prayers and meditation. The cleansing ritual includes denying themselves pleasures such as sex, alcohol, smoking and clubbing.
They will put some powder to their forehead, cause they belief, the bad things can remove from your body thru your head (brain) and good things can come to your body also from your head.
There?s some of powder: Sandhenem Sandhel wood (yellow), Thiniru (white), Kaukuma (red).
Many child come there with the bald head, and on their head, their parents put some Sandhenem powder to make them feel cold not so hot cause of the weather..
The largest Thaipusam celebrations take place in Singapore and Malaysia. Thaipusam is also celebrated in large scale at Penang.The temple is at Jalan Waterfall, the way go to Taman Bunga (Botanical Garden).
Many people come to here, and also many Chinese also participate in this festival, and also have foreigner involved in festival, carried the Kavadi (burdens). They did this because their wishes come true then keep the promise to do this Kavadi.
They were carrying some pot of milk, and also breaking the coconut, the milk and coconut symbolized the purity. At the night time all the street was filled by the coconut. Then 1 by 1 the people carrying the Kavadi came. They put a vel into their mouth, their tongue, their face skin also in the forehead, and also some people using the nail slipper.
Some people got problem with their health also came to here to get cured, also many couple came for asking to get baby.
Landscape worker Ganesan Vailu, 20, pierced his cheek with a foot-long skewer called karagam to fulfil a life-long vow after his father recovered from a heart attack.
?I wasn?t afraid and it wasn?t painful because I was in a trance. I only came to realisation after the skewer was removed and they prayed for the spirit to come out from me. I?m glad everything ended well and I?ve fulfilled my vow. I can still eat as usual and the wounds will heal in three to four days,? said Ganesan, a devout Hindu.
Ganesan only remembers the priest tying a saffron cloth around his wrist, signifying his readiness for the spirit to enter his body. Once he is in a trance, his spirits achieves transcendence over his body, and he would not feel any sensation during the period.
After the spirit left him at the cave, his physical senses returned and he had to rest for 10 minutes before walking, aided by his mother and a friend.
Vigneswari Pakiry, 27, and her husband Navanithan Mothu, 30, took the strenuous journey of carrying their newborn baby on a cradle made from yellow cloth ? the colour of Muruga ? tied to a bundle of sugar cane. Perspiring and panting on the steep steps, the couple carried each end of the sugar cane on their shoulders.
?We have been praying for a child for three years. Three weeks after we came here to pray last year, I was pregnant. I knew I would come back here,? said Vigneswari, smiling from ear to ear. She is now mother of three-month-old chubby Shathivel.
For many devotees, Thaipusam is also a time of joyous and reverent thanksgiving. Many people dancing, singing and enjoying the festival. Along the road to the temple many stands offering the free drink and food for the devotees and the visitors.
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaipusam
http://thestar.com.my/youth2/story.aspfile=/2007/2/7/youth2/16768322&sec=youth2
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.aspfile=/2007/2/2/north/16759988&sec=north
Please click here to see the photos: Thaipusam 2007, Penang.
|
|
