SILVER CHARIOT DAMAGED

Shame in a chariot mishap

The majestic silver chariot carrying the gold and jewel decked deities of Lord Muruga and his two consorts is an annual affairs which attract close to 100,000 devotees in the 14 hour procession from the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple in Jalan Tun H.S.Lee on the eve of the festival.

The religious procession is by far the largest in the country and attracts tourists as well as prompts engagement with the not only the Indian community but also the Chinese community who come forward to make offering, put up tents to serve free food and drinks to the devotees in the procession as well as those who take vows to carry kavadis or milk pots in that 15 kilometre journey while others chose to smash coconuts in the path of the chariot.

The silver chariot holds many interpretations as to its sanctity, it significance to life and mankind. It a divine process and a holy journey which should be capitalised on and its benefits harnessed in every way possible.

This year, without exception, the chariot ran into trouble and I squarely blame the temple authorities for not only understanding the virtues of the chariot albeit the chariot procession and have made it again a public mockery.

In the wee hours of the morning on Friday January 30, the chariot was stalled in Jalan Ipoh a few metres from the Sentul Police station at the overhead pedestrian bridge fronting SK Sentul Utama. Like the bridge in Batu 3 ½ Jalan Ipoh in front of Chung Hwa Independent High School, this bridge is also an electrically operated mechanical hoist type of steel bridge to allow the chariot to pass through.

While all caution is taken by the driver of the motorised vehicle pulling the chariot and the officials who are supposed to be in the know, the chariot could not pass under.

An incapable and amateur temple security boy actually instructed the chariot to proceed notwithstanding as the gold “kalasam” or minaret that forms the apex of the chariot could “bend” without breaking and I was shocked that they actually proceed resulting in the “kalasam” tip snapping. As if they had not done enough damage, three climbed on top of the chariot (an act that is never done when the deity is present inside the chariot) and tried to do all kinds of things to cut, if not hammer down the iron support within the “kalasam”.

Foolishly , a second attempt was made with a broken “kalasam” to pass through and this time the top most tier of the silver chariot was pulled away snapping the silver seams.
It then dawned upon them that the chariot should have been steered far left was the road was at its lowest to allow this towering chariot to pass through and so they did.

With such damage, the gold “kalasam” in pieces and all kinds of patch work done with a garland and a cloth to conceal the “topless” chariot, they proceeded.

The “kalasam” is actually the pride and source of beauty of the entire silver chariot and the main source of incoming universal energy for the deity which had only hours before been awakened and charged in the temple with a special pooja and prayers and mantras of sorts.

I walk with the chariot every year and have done so since I was 12 in 1971 when the chariot was a wooden one and at a time when only a hundred odd devotees would follow the chariot all the way. It is not an easy walk especially when tolerating the scorching sun of the noon heat as the chariot if on its final leg of the journey.

Much has changed since and today, a temple which claims to be the richest in the country has failed yet again to manage a procession which is a pride of the Hindu and Malaysian Indian community in the country.

The list goes on but I must highlight this incident as the chariot was stalled for a good one hour and 15 minutes and one many instances made to be unhooked from the vehicle and worst off reversed. A chariot on the move should never be reversed as its journey symbolises the journey of life which is meant to move forward moving. Now I understand that not only are the temple officials entrusted with such a task ignorant of what they are doing and what it stands for, but they are also intimidating the very responsibility of managing an annual pilgrimage by the deity which brings “life” to Thaipusam.

I personally find the Penang silver chariot journey much better managed although there, George Town comes to a standstill during a much longer 18-hour journey. But being a KLite , I pride myself of being son of KL that attracts the largest number of Indians in a single festival at any one time in the world and that’s Thaipusam in Batu Caves.