Ganesh chaturthi

This festival has taken monumental proportions with people willing to spend as much as needed only to be able to make claims to a higher and more expensive statue in public places. The dangerous thing with all this vying for superior status is that the environment is taking a beating at the hands of us humans.

When the statues are immersed in water, they take with them thousands of kilograms of Plaster of Paris, artificial colors and a lot of other chemical waste that pollutes the water bodies in irreparable ways. But on the positive side, people are coming out to stop the damage being done, and to ensure that the celebrations add to the joys of our lives and not to the sorrows.

Ending on a sweet note, one of the best aspects of Ganesh Chaturthi are the mouth-watering sweets that are made. Dumplings made of rice flour also known as “modak” in Hindi are unique to this occasion. Ganesh is said to be partial to them. So are we! In fact, these sweets are mostly not made at other times; that perhaps is the reason they are awaited with as much enthusiasm as the festival itself.

The Batu Caves is a massive limestone hill around 13 kilometers north of Kuala Lumpur. Its interiors are home to a Hindu shrine lined with different deities. The shrine itself is located deep inside the high caverns which take 272 steps to reach. Visitors can visit the caves with a short drive through Little India and a stop at a local Batik center. “If you’re visiting Kuala Lumpur, the Batu Caves is a must see. ” Traveler David from Philippines wrote. We list the reasons why.

The caves are known to be over 400 million years old. Before it was transformed into a Hindu temple, indigenous tribes and Chinese settlers depended on the caves for shelter and fertilizer. In 1878, the caves were rediscovered by an American Naturalist. Eventually in 1891, a prominent Malaysian trader of Tamil origin named K. Thamboosamy Pillai saw the caves’ potential as a pilgrimage site. The Batu Caves is also home to some of the world’s oldest and rarest species including the begonia flower and the trapdoor spider, an arachnid resulting in over 300 million years of evolution. They survive along with more than 200 species (so-called living fossils) at Batu’s many caves. New flora and fauna are still being discovered.

Pillai saw the caves as a fitting worship site for Lord Murugan, the Hindu god of war and victory, owing to the shape of its entrance. He found that it resembled the divine spear of Murugan. Colorful statues and shrines come together with the cave’s intricate stalagmites and stalactites. The darkness inherent in cave systems, bathed with the temple lights, also add to a quiet and solemn mood, ideal for a spiritual retreat.

The Batu Caves network comprise of many caves, mainly the actual Temple Cave a.k.a. Cathedral Cave owing to its high ceilinged dome appearance, Art Gallery Caves (displaying murals and statues of Hindu gods), the Ramayana Cave (depicting the epic story through wall murals) and the Dark Cave where the Batu Caves’ species could be found.