Hi, ASEAN Hive Community! Let me continue my trip to Malaysia articles. This time let's visit the Batu Caves. Well, let's just take photos around. And wow, I find it amazing how convenient it was to travel from Kuala Lumpur to Batu Caves, thanks to their efficient transportation system.
According to Wikipedia:
The Batu Caves are a group of caves, some of which have been converted into temples, on a limestone hill located 10 kilometers north of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, in the Gombak district.
These caves constitute the largest Hindu shrine outside India. Dedicated to Murugan (Kârttikeya), these shrines are among the most popular outside India. It is the gathering point during the great Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia 1.
Source: here
Upon arrival at the premises, it was prominent to see the big statue of the green monkey.
According to Wikipedia:
Hanumān is the monkey god, patron of wrestlers , god of wisdom . He is often depicted with a club ( gadā ).
A characteristic of Hanumān is his complete and permanent loyalty to Rama, his spiritual Master. His entire life, his actions, his days and his nights are devoted to serving his Master. In a word, Hanumān is the image of the perfect disciple . After the victory, Rama wanted to reward Hanumān. He refused, too happy to have been the champion of love and justice. This nobility is still illustrated today by the Hindu proverb “monkeys cry for others, never for themselves”.
Originally, Hanumān was the guardian of the properties and any founder of a new village had to erect his statue.
Source: here
From here, we could see some monkeys running around the temples.
Let's enjoy taking photos around. Being my first time in Malaysia, I was in awe just seeing the entrance of Batu Caves. I really had no idea what to expect here because I never did my research. It was my companion who told me we should visit Batu Caves.
A Hindu temple was built in front of the limestone mountain. I didn't check that one because our aim is to see around. But I enjoyed taking photos here. Everything was so picturesque.
A Hindu temple just close to nature.
As we continued to walk, we found this zen garden. Behind it is another temple which we were never able to check out.
It was so hot that day that we just wanted to stay here because the man-made waterfall was really refreshing. The shady area made me feel relaxed.
By the way, there was a monkey approaching us trying to find some food. I didn't get a chance to take a photo as I didn't want he would snatch the camera.
I was thinking if we could go inside the garden but it would eat our time spent there.
So, taking photos as a tourist was fine.
Oh well, I stand to be corrected. But it's actually a fish pond full of koi fish.
Obviously, we spent so much time here that we never wanted to move on to the next sighting. We just enjoyed having a break here.
And we saw the golden statue from the zen garden.
From the garden, you can see the 272 steps to the Batu Caves. It was time for us to move on.
This golden statue is Lord Murugan, and in 2006, they installed the 43-m high statue at the foot of the staircase.
The Tamil traders dedicated a worship place to Murugan.
We enjoyed feeding the pigeons.
We were hesitant to upstairs as we needed to climb 272 steps.
Okay, we need to feed the pigeons, first.
The Batu Caves is a Hindu pilgrimage site dedicated to Lord Murugan.
By the way, the reason why it's called Batu it's because of Batu River and Batu village nearby.
Do you know how old are the limestones of Batu Mountain? It's 200 million years old.
The pigeons were nice subjects for a photo, so why not?
This area was really picturesque, good thing there were no people in front of me.
A very Instagrammable area. We were just people-watching at first and how was it going. Anyway, always bring bottled water with you because it is hot and you can't imagine how tiring it would be climb upstairs.
You can buy some snacks around if you're hungry. You can also buy some snacks for the pigeons and the monkeys. Well, I'm not yet finished with this Batu Caves article. For the next blog, let's go take a climb of 272 steps to the cave and I will show you more photos.
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