Batu Caves - Part 1

Date of Visit: 26th December 2015

This is a very long overdue travelogue post, partly because I have difficulties in transferring photos snapped from IPhone to the laptop. Yeap.. it took me more than 2 years to record on my first trip inside the Batu Caves complex, which is one of the most popular destination to the tourist who came to visit Kuala Lumpur. In order for that trip to happened, I had to bribe Syahirah to accompany me as no one would want to climb and explore the Hindu cave. Just so you know, our family used to reside in Taman Seri Gombak that is located too close to the attraction and my parent in law also stayed in Selayang, just on the other side of the Cave.

A pose with the statue of Lord Murugan

Batu Caves is an iconic and popular tourist attraction in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. It is a site of a Hindu temple and shrine, especially to those Lord Murugan worshipers. Once a year, Batu Caves attracts thousands of worshipers and tourists, during the annual Hindu festival, Thaipusam. Please read more about Thaipusam Festival in "wonderfulmalaysia.com" write-up as you will be guided of the whole festive ceremonies in more details. Anyway, this limestone outcrop is located just on the north side of Kuala Lumpur which has 3 main caves featuring temples and Hindu shrines.We were surprised as there were more foreigners visitor than the locals at the time of our visit. As usual, they seems to know more than us about where to go when in town.

Syahirah on the famous 272 steps of Batu Cave

The main attraction of the complex is the large statue of the Hindu God, Murugan located strategical at the entrance. Next attraction is taking a 272 steep climb up where its steps gave resulting view of the stunning skyline of Kuala Lumpur city centre. Be careful of the monkeys romping around the caves and the steps as they are the added feature that make it as a popular spot for rock climbing enthusiasts. As soon as you reach the top, paintings and scenes of Hindu Gods can be seen in the Ramayana Cave. Take note that Batu Caves is a place where you should not miss should you visit Malaysia. It's location is near Selayang, in Gombak district where a famous and large wholesale market in Klang Valley is located.

One of them (the monkey) and a kind .. hehe

Besides, Batu Caves housed a distinctive geographical features said to be a labyrinth of spooky caves found within Malaysia's limestone abutments. This limestone hill that has a series of caves and cave temple. It takes its name from the Sungai Batu (Batu River), which flows past the hill. It is the tenth limestone hill that descend from Ampang. Batu Caves is also the name of a nearby village. The cave is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India that is dedicated to Lord Murugan (the youngest son of Shiva and Parvathi) which becoming a focal point of Hindu festival, Thaipusam where the Hindu is paying penance to Lord Murugan.

Batu Caves in short also referred as the 10th Caves or Hill for Lord Murugan as there are six important holy shrines in India and four more in Malaysia that worship the same god. Three others in Malaysia are Kallumalai Temple in Ipoh, Tanneermalai Temple in Penang and Sannasimalai Temple in Malacca.

The limestone that forming Batu Caves is said to be around 400 million years old. Some of the cave entrances were used as shelters by the indigenous Temuan people, one of the tribe of Orang Asli in Malaysia. Later at around 1860, the Chinese settlers began excavating guano for fertilising their vegetable patches. However, the caves became famous only after the limestone hills were recorded by colonial authorities including Daly and Syers as well as an American Naturalist, William Hornaday in 1878.

Batu Caves was promoted as a place of worship by K. Thamboosamy Pillai, an Indian trader. He was inspired by the "vel" shaped entrance of the main cave and was inspired to dedicate a temple to Lord Murugan within the caves. In 1890, Pillai, who also the founder of the Sri Mahamariamman Temple, Kuala Lumpur, installed the murti (consecrated statue) of Sri Murugan Swami in what is today known as the Temple Cave. Since 1892, the Thaipusam festival in the Tamil month of Thai, usually falls in late January and or early February every year has since been celebrated there.

Wooden steps up to the Temple Cave were built in 1920 and have since been replaced by 272 concrete steps. Rising almost 100 meter above the ground, the Batu Caves temple complex consists of 3 main caves and a few smaller ones. The biggest, referred to as Cathedral Cave or Temple Cave, which has a very high ceiling and features ornate with Hindu shrines. To reach it, visitors must climb a steep flight of 272 steps.There are additional steps after the 272 steps constructed inside the lower and upper level temple for the visitor's convenience. You may see that from the photos that I'm sharing here where the upgrading works was ongoing in 2015. It must have been completed by now.

Take notice of the base of the hill which has 2 more cave temples, Art Gallery Cave and Museum Cave, both of which are full of Hindu statues and paintings. Due to the humid weather, I let the visit to both places passes, maybe next time when I had another chance to revisit. This complex was renovated and opened as the Cave Villa in 2008. Many of the shrines relate the story of Lord Murugan's victory over the demon Soorapadman. An audio tour is available to visitors. I think it's worth to pay a visit inside the Gallery and Museum caves just to complete your tour.

To be continued with Part 2, ie about the Dark Cave which is another attraction inside the complex that you must include in your list. Naim took Nastja Sade Ronkko (my friend daughter from Finland) to Batu Caves and she paid for the tour inside the Dark Cave but unfortunately he did not save any with him.