Batu Caves

The caves were little-known except to local residents until 1878, when the American naturalist William Temple Hornaday revealed their existence to the wider world. K. Thamboosamy Pillay, a leader of the Tamil Hindu community in Malaya (as the region was then called), built a temple within the caves in 1891. It is said that he took inspiration from the similarity in shape of the cave entrance to the tip of the vel, or spear, traditionally wielded by the deity Murugan. Thaipusam, the Tamil Hindu festival devoted to Murugan, was first celebrated on the site in 1892 and is now a major event that attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims annually.