Where is Phil now?

MALAYSIA | Monday, 14 January 2013 | Views [1449] | View Smaller Image

After 48 days of prayer and fasting the devotee prepares his or her kavati. This can be as simple as carrying a pot of milk through to the embedding of hooks in the skin that are pulled on by a follower walking behind, or the carrying of a weighty alter adorned with peacock feathers that pull at hooks in the skin as the devotee is jostled through the crowds. It is mind boggling!

A cacophony of drums and horns, chanting and singing and a thousand conversations in foreign tongues. The shadows from a thousand lights and raised torches. The smoke from charcoal fires, braziers and cigars. The smells of incense, frying meat and vegetables and the sweat of a few hundred thousand people crammed into the area at the base of the steps to Batu Caves. This is Thaipusam!

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The devotee must the make the long, slow and painful walk from the area of preparation, carrying his or her kavati through the masses of people and slowly up the 272 steep and crowded stairs to the temple complex of Batu Caves.

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Where is Phil now?

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