Description of the attraction
The statue of Murugan is the largest statue of this Hindu god in the world. This 43-meter statue rises near the stairs to the Batu Caves, a popular Hindu shrine. Although the main adherents of Hinduism moved to Malaysia at the end of the 19th century, the religion itself penetrated here much earlier - with Indian merchants. And the famous Caves Temple near the Batu Caves was built more than two centuries ago by a wealthy Indian merchant.
A modern statue of this most revered deity in Hinduism appeared near the temple in 2006. It took fifteen Indian sculptors and a similar number of local artists and architects three years to create this monument. The sculpture took one and a half thousand cubic meters of concrete, for the connecting structure it took 250 tons of beams. Gold paint with a volume of 300 liters was brought from Thailand to the covering of the statue. The cost of this project exceeded half a million dollars. After its discovery, the sculpture was entered in the Guinness Book of Records.
Harmony in such a peaceful and stable country as Malaysia is due to respect for the culture, religion and customs of all nationalities inhabiting it. And in the opening of the shrine, so significant for the residents of Hinduism, government officials participated, as well as many guests from India. The statue was showered with flowers from helicopters that were in the evening sky especially for this celebration.
In India itself, the statue represents the supreme god of war. Tamils, an Indian people living in Malaysia, venerate him as a defender from war, bringing victory, as well as giving fertility. It is always presented in the form of a young man armed with a bow and a spear; a banner with a drawing of a rooster is considered an invariable attribute.
After the opening of the statue of Murugan, in addition to pilgrims, tourists began to come to the temple and caves, attracted by the extraordinary size of the statue. Their flow reaches thousands of people every day.
