Just after we arrived in Penang, the local Hindu populaton celebrated Thaipusam. Thaipusam is a religious festival commemorating the god Murugan conquering the evil spirit Soorapadam. In Penang, Thaipusam is celebrated over several days, and includes a procession of devotees bringing a statue of Murugan to the Nattukottai Chettiar Temple. Devotees also make a pilgrimage to the Balathandayuthapani Temple set on a hill overlooking George Town. Devotees who carry offerings or offer their bodies for extensive piercings are called kavadi.
We joined the throng of kavadi, their friends, families and a host of other spectators, to take in the preparations for the pilgrimage and walk the long route to the Balathandayuthapani Temple. Under a clear sky promising to become a very hot day, we set off with a couple of expat friends to watch kavadi preparing for the procession.
With incense heavy in the air, it was a colorful swirl of silks, offerings and 5-foot-tall styrofoam statues that were carried by some kavadi. Everywhere I looked, someone was having their cheeks run through with a spear or was being pierced by hundreds of hooks on their torso and back.
We then walked along the processional route to the temple. Food stalls and temporary shrines were crammed into every free inch of space along the route. Individuals, communities, small businesses and large corporations had erected tents to offer free food and drink to devotees. This charity was accompanied by the loudest mix of Hindu, Indian pop and Western techno music I have ever heard. It was as if each stall had bought speakers that went up to eleven, but when that was not enough to drown out the stall next door, they had tampered with the wiring and found a twelfth notch. 
After several hours of walking and taking in the scene, we too reached the Balathandayuthapani Temple. It was full of hot, tired and sweating bodies, but it was mercifully quiet as devotees made their offerings and had their hooks and spears pulled out. It definitely looked painful.I will spare the casual viewer from the most vivid images, but for the curious, look here for all our photos from the day.
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