Image : Net
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Ten of thousands of pilgrims, some with skewered cheeks, gathered Wednesday for a Hindu festival dampened this year by a boycott among ethnic Indian activists discontent over the government's treatment of minorities.
After overnight prayers and preparations, pilgrims carrying kavadis _heavy frames decorated with beads and peacock feathers and brass pots with offerings of milk marched in processions to Hindu temples across the country to celebrate the Thaipusam festival.
But the main procession and prayers, which normally see nearly 1 million people gather at Sri Subamaniar Swamy Temple inside the limestone Batu Caves near Malaysia's biggest city, Kuala Lumpur, were this year the target of a boycott by ethnic Indian activists, who urged pilgrims to go to other temples in order to express their anger at the government.
Many ethnic Indians, who make up 8 percent of Malaysia's 27 million people, feel they face discrimination in jobs, education and business, and say they do not have full religious freedom in this Muslim-majority country.
About 60 percent of Malaysia's population is ethnic Malay Muslims. There is also a large ethnic Chinese minority that is mainly Buddhist and Christian. Rumors of riots and political problems kept people away. It's very dull ... usually you cannot walk around here, S.M. Mahndran, 50, said, pointing at empty spaces in the Sri Subamaniar Swamy Temple foreground.
Pilgrims were urged to gather at other temples instead of the Batu Caves, which are controlled by the Malaysian Indian Congress, a political party in the ruling National Front coalition. Indian activists accuse the MIC of not doing enough for the ethnic Indian community.
Shopkeepers around the Batu Caves, pilgrims and journalists said only about 30,000 to 50,000 people turned up this year. There were no official estimates of the crowds, but MIC president Samy Vellu claimed a crowd of more than 1.1 million.The crowd is the usual crowd. I have come to Thaipusam for 60 years ... I am very, very happy,» he said.
The simmering Indian discontent became evident on Nov. 25 when about 20,000 people held an unprecedented anti-government rally in Kuala Lumpur. Five leaders of the Hindu Rights Action Force, which organized the protest, were jailed under a law that allows indefinite detention.
Devan, a 41-year-old policeman who would not give his full name, described the low turnout at the Batu Caves as «sabotage» by Hindraf, but acknowledged the group is fighting for Indian rights.
They woke up those Indians who have been sleeping, said Devan, who came to the caves with his three children to offer milk. Still, most pilgrims there said they were motivated by their religious vows rather than politics.
It is our culture and heritage ... it is very colorful. I like the kavadi with peacock feathers. Very beautiful, said J. Thanaiyanthi, 31, who came with her husband and 7-year-old daughter.
In a traditional show of penance, many pilgrims had the skin on their backs pierced with hooks that were attached to lemons or small pots of milk. Several pilgrims, with their heads shaved bald, had their cheeks and tongues skewered with thin spears as they danced in a trance-like state to the beat of drums.
The spectacle of pilgrims withstanding pain and getting themselves pierced is an annual tourist attraction.
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