Batu Caves - A Hindu Shrine

Stalls at the foot of the cave where flowers can be purchased
for offerings

Another sight seeing stop on our tour with the American pastors was the Batu Caves....a lime stone hill that has a series of caves and cave temples....said to be 400 million years old.  This cave is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of India and is dedicated to Lord Murugan.  It is, also, the focal point of the Hindu festival, Thaipusam, in late January, early February.

A view of the limestone mountain that houses the  caves and temple caves.  Batu Caves consist of three main caves and a number of smaller ones.  They were discovered in 1892.  Upon arrival, we were greeted by lots of long tailed macaque monkeys who are after your food and drink and by lots of birds. TempleCave or Cathedral Cave is the best known and biggest of the caves.  It is 110 yards above the ground and is lighted by daylight from several holes in the ceiling. This main cave features ornate Hindu shrines and can only be reached by climbing the steep flight of 272 stairs to the top. At the base of the cave are 2 more cave temples, Art Gallery Cave and Museum Cave both of which are full of Hindu statues and paintings.  Many of the shrines relate the story of Lord Murugan’s victory over the demon Soorapadam.  At the base of the Batu Caves sits a 132 ft high state of Lord Muruga...the tallest of Lord Muruga in the world.  Batu Caves is also the center of rock climbing development in Malaysia for the past 10 years.  Batu Caves offers more than 160 climbing routes.

The many birds who grace the buildings at Batu Caves

These monkeys are fearless.....I saw them grab
a bag from the hands of a woman......opened
up her can drink and downed it!!!

These monkeys look cut BUT they are NOT!

132 ft Lord Muruga statue....also in the
background are the steep 272 stairs up to the
cave......very tiring to climb but not
impossible!

Images of the many God the Hindus worship

More images.  The Hindu temples are the
most elaborate and colorful with the
images of their gods....but I have
noticed their temples are the dirtiest

More images....when you have more than
330 million gods to worship there are
going to be a lot of images

A Hindu monk on his way up the steps
to the temple for worship

View from the top of the stairs

A little information on Hindu religion:
Hinduism is the 3rd largest religion having 900 million followers.  Hindus  are said to be 335,000,000 gods.  Hindus believe in one Supreme Being but has an extensive  hierarchy of Gods.  In Hinduism there are four main denominations - Saivism, Shaktism, Vaishnavism, Smartism.  These beings have evolved through eons of time and are able to help mankind without themselves having to live in a physical body.  These with their multitude of angelic devas, live and work constantly and tirelessly protecting and guiding them, open new doors and closing used ones.  A unique characteristic of Hinduism is that one devotee may be worshipping one god while a friend worships another, yet both honor the other’s choice and feel no sense of conflict bringing the gift of tolerance that allows for different stages of worship, different and personal expressions of devotion and even different gods to guide life on this earth.

This is the fertility tree.

While we were here on this visit, I witnessed a young couple with a child that looked to be about 18 months to 2 years old.  They came and made an offering to the God in front of the Fertility tree and then proceeded up the stairs with the child from a blessing from the Hindu Monk

This was interesting to me....I don’t know why I thought
only Christians would be interested in other religions
and want to see their temples of worship.  This is a
Muslim woman in full dress (only her eyes and hands
are visible) at the Batu Caves

This day at the Batu Caves there was more activity than I have seen in the past....possibly because it was a Friday.  There were several monks there who were blessing people.  I, also, witnessed many who came in and laid prostrate on the floor in front of the statues of images of gods.  We met a young lady...looked to be in her early 30’s, who was willing to talk to us.  She comes every Friday to pray to her gods so they will not be angry with her.  She, also, interesting enough wears a cross around her neck so we asked her about that.  She said, yes she knew about Jesus from her cousin who was a Christian.  She said he was one of her gods, too.  They want to have all their bases covered so they have no problem praying to Jesus along with their other gods.

You shall have no other gods before me  Exodus 20:3

You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.  You shall not bow down before then or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the 3rd and 4th generations of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments       Exodus 20:4-6

I was overwhelmed with the lostness of this country and then I was reminded they are no different than America.  We bow down to images of wealth, status, jobs, family, sports and selves every single day.  We turn our back on the One True Living God for those things the world can offer us that can be gone in one second of misfortune.  However, unlike the majority of Hindus.....we cannot say I never heard of Jesus!