SOJOURN

Limestone Wonder

Malaysia | Wednesday, August 17, 2011 | 18 photos

This is one of the major attractions if anyone travels around Malaysia, irrespective of religion and beliefs these caves make up for a worthwhile visit. The feel inside these caves are magnanimous and the views breathtaking.
Batu Caves is a limestone hill, which has a series of caves and cave temples located in Gombak district, Kuala Lampur. It is named after the river Sangai Batu or Batu River which flows past the hill. Batu is also the name of a nearby village. The formation of the caves is believed to be 400 million years old, which stretches for 2 kilometers. It has 3 main caves and many smaller ones. The biggest is usually referred as Cathedral Cave which has a ceiling of over 100 meters high.
Around the 1860’s these caves were used as a resource for ‘Guano’ which was used for fertilizing the vegetable crops by Chinese settlers at that time. It was only in 1891 when an Indian trader K.Thamboosamy Pillai promoted the caves as a place of worship for Hindus. The temple was designed as per Dravidian architecture and is dedicated to lord ‘Muruga’. At the foothills of the temple before ascending the 272 steps to the main cave stands the statue of Lord Muruga which is 140 feet tall, it is painted with 300 liters of gold paint brought in from Thailand and it costs around 24 million. It took 3 years in the making.
Batu Caves is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India, particularly to South Indians.