A wonderful temple and the impressive Thaipusam festival with more than one million visitors (January 2026)

Next we went to the biggest temple on Penang, the Kek Lok Si Temple. It was so beautiful!
Getting some good spirits.
Made of jade.
About 10.000 buddha statues in one of the buildings.
After the temple, we joint the Thaipusam festival. It is one of the major Tamil Hindu festivals with one two one and a half million visitors and it was crazy, colorful, and interesting. The main things going on are two wagons going through the city. One silver and one golden one.
Holy cows.
At the wagons, people donated money, food, and all kind of things and got blessings for themselves and their children in return.
Smashing coconuts was one of the main activities for a fortunate live. The coconuts actually have a deeper meaning. It’s interesting. Google it.
Small temples all over the place.
More coconut smashing!
And then we reached the area of the main activities! It was crazy! People carrying dragons, dancing, praying, super loud modernized, electronic, Indian chanting-style music, …
… some carried big, self-made things (about 30 kilos heavy) on their backs, …
… some put weighs on hooks through their skin, some carried blessed milk, and more dancing, chanting and everything! See the video at the end of this post.
We had a good time! It was fascinating and kind of magical.
And a lot of food: a lot of the companies of Penang were offering food of all kinds for free.
And of course there were more temples.
And then we reached the destination of all the visitors of the festival: the Arulmigu Sri Balathandayuthapani Temple (Waterfall Hilltop Temple). Everybody went up the big stairs with hundreds of steps.
And in the temple on the top of the hill, after waiting in line, the ones who carried the blessed milk, gave it to the helping people, …
… who then were pouring the milk over the main deity statues of Lord Murugan (the Hindu god of youth, war, and virtue). Thousands of liters of milk.
It was fascinating!