The Batu and Ramayana Caves

Even though I was going to have to spend longer in Malaysia than I had originally planned while I waited for my visa to be processed, I was going to make the most of it. I had a lot of work to do over the weekend but was able to arrange my schedule to have some time off during the day during which I could go out and explore.

My hotel had breakfast, so I started my morning with a plate of roti canai and a hot coffee before heading out.

Today I was going to visit the famous Batu Caves. I'd been there once before, about ten years ago, and was excited to go back. To get to the Batu Caves, I had to first take the train for about 45 minutes north out of the city where I was meant to change to a different train for the remaining three stations. Unfortunately, I just missed the second train, and instead of waiting for an hour for the next one, I decided just to take a taxi to the caves.

Soon, however, I was standing out of the brightly colored gates that towered over the entrance to the Batu Caves.

The Batu Caves is a sprawling Hindu temple complex centered around a series of natural caves in the surrounding limestone cliffs. The story goes that in the late 19th century, a Tamil trader was inspired by the cave's dramatic entrance which he thought resembled the spear of Lord Murugan, the Hindu god of war and victory.

Seeing this as a divine sign, he dedicated the caves to Murugan, and in 1891 the first shrine was established inside what is now known as Temple Cave. Over the following century, the site grew into one of the most important Hindu pilgrimage destinations outside of India, particularly amongst Malaysia's Tamil Hindu community.

Approaching the temple, the first thing you'll notice is the towering golden statue of Murugan, one of the tallest statues of a Hindu deity in the world and the tallest statue in all of Malaysia. The statue stands 140 feet (about 43 meters) tall and took three years to build. It was unveiled in 2006 during the Taipusam Festival, a Hindu festival celebrating Murugan.

Before climbing the 272 brightly colored steps that lead to Temple Cave, I stopped in to pay a visit at the temple located at the foot of the steps. Sri Subramanir Swami Temple is a colorful and richly decorated shrine that serves as a sort of ceremonial gateway to the caves above.

Ornate and vividly colorful, the temple is adorned with intricate statues of Hindu deities, mythological figures, and scenes from sacred stories. Inside, devotees prayed and made offerings in front of the various shrines.

I watched as people prayed and received blessings from the temple priests. At one shrine, the priest saw me observing and beckoned me forward. He said a prayer in Tamil, placed a dot of white powder on my forehead, and wrapped a knotted red string around my wrist a few times.

I have learned a lot about Buddhism during my decade-plus of living in Thailand, but I don't really know all that much about Hinduism. I'm not sure exactly what the string represents, but I do know that it's a blessing, and I'm always happy to have one of those.

It was time to begin my journey up the rainbow steps to the entrance to Temple Cave.

The thickly jungled cliffs and hills surrounding Batu Caves are home to lots of mischievous macaques, and while other tourists were stopping to take pictures with them or feed them, I did my best to avoid them. I've seen how mean monkeys can be, and I dodged around them on my climb, giving each one I passed a wide berth.

It wasn't long before I was at the top of the steps and making my way through another gate demarcating the boundary between the sacred and secular.

Inside Temple Cave, the ceiling opened up dramatically to the sky in places allowing sunlight to stream down on the collection of shrines and prayer areas below. Devotees removed their shoes and approached the shrines, bowing, leaving offerings, or sitting to pray or read holy texts in the cool, dark, quiet of the cave.

Visiting the cave is a really cool experience. It feels like a really special place to step foot into, and it's interesting to watch people praying at the shrines. Even though I was an outsider, the caves are a really popular tourist place, and I was far from the only foreign visitor.

As I descended from Temple Cave, another sign caught my eye. Pointing off toward the edge of the compound, the words "Ramayana Cave - 10 Ringgit" intrigued me. Curious, I followed the signs, handed over a pink plastic 10 Ringgit note, and entered the Ramayana Cave.

The Ramayana Cave could have felt tacky had it not been a holy site. Instead, it felt surprisingly reverent. Unlike the main Temple Cave, which feels vast, Ramayana Cave is darker, quieter, and more atmospheric. The interior has been transformed with a collection of brightly painted statues depicting scenes from the Ramayana, one of the great epics of Hindu mythology all illuminated in multi-colored lights.

The Ramayana tells the story of Prince Rama, an incarnation of the god Vishnu, whose wife Sita is abducted by the demon king Ravana. With the help of allies including the monkey warrior Hanuman, Rama embarks on a long journey to rescue her, culminating in an epic battle between good and evil.

The story is also the national epic of Thailand, where it is known as the Ramakien, and is often depicted in the form of Khon performances.

I walked through the cave, following along with the story as best as I could. The Ramayana is incredibly long; around 24,000 verses. Ramakien performances that I've seen only depict a select scene or two from the epic, and I'm not really familiar with the whole story.

It was interesting seeing a different spiritual side of Malaysia, an officially Muslim country but one that guarantees freedom of religion and has large Christian, Buddhist, and Hindu demographics.

After leaving the cave, I was able to catch the first train back to Kuala Lumpur, and about an hour later, I was back at my hotel just in time to get back to work.

I still had a few days to wait for my visa to be processed, but I decided I didn't want to spend those days just sitting around Kuala Lumpur. If I was going to be returning to Thailand in a few days, why not slowly make my way up north to the border to be ready to cross it as soon as I had my visa in hand?

I booked a train ticket online for the next morning, and began packing my bags for a new adventure, one which would take me to a part of Malaysia I had never seen.