Thaipusam ritual pays off for Chinese devotee in Penang

 

Jeffery Kang with his family during the 2017 Thaipusam festival. His mother, Ooi Gaik Sim, is in the wheelchair.

GEORGE TOWN: Penangite Jeffrey Kang has been performing his Thaipusam vow since the age of 13 at the Balathandayuthapani Temple in Penang. This year, however, due to the ban on kavadi-carrying, he is unable to do so.

But that, he said, won’t stop him from celebrating Thaipusam and offering prayers to Lord Muruga.

In past years, although he did not carry the traditional kavadi per se, he would pierce his body with hooks and a vel (spear-like weapon associated with Lord Muruga).

He first started performing the ritual penance to Lord Muruga to achieve good academic grades.

Jeffery Kang with his wife, Zoey.

“My mother’s friend, who is an Indian, recommended that I do so in order to get Lord Muruga’s blessings for my exams and my undertakings in life. Ever since then, I have been putting my faith in Him,” he told FMT.

Kang continued the tradition even as he later pursued his career in the culinary industry. Currently the owner of a restaurant in Balik Pulau, he previously operated a canteen at a Bayan Lepas factory and before that ran a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur.

Kang’s faith in Lord Muruga became stronger when his mother, Ooi Gaik Sim, 60, recovered from a stroke back in 2016.

“I performed the body piercing with a prayer for my mother’s recovery. She recovered, and I felt my prayers to Lord Muruga had paid off.”

Jeffery Kang (third from right) with his family members and friends during the 2019 Thaipusam festival.

His mother had also been participating in Thaipusam rituals by carrying the “paal kudam” (milk offering) to the hilltop Arulmigu Balathandayuthapani Temple every year before the stroke.

Kang also attributed his faith in Lord Muruga for keeping him out of harm’s way.

“Ten years ago, I was involved in a car accident that happened in front of a Hindu temple in Jalan Datuk Keramat. Miraculously, I got out uninjured. My faith in Him (Lord Muruga) kept me alive.”

Piercing their bodies with hooks, Kang and about 30 other Chinese devotees used to walk to the temple every year, sometimes pulling a kavadi-chariot.

Jeffery Kang (front right) pulling a kavadi-chariot with other Chinese devotees during the 2015 Thaipusam festival.

Although sad that he is unable to fulfil his vow this year, as the government has banned kavadi-carrying due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Kang said he would continue celebrating the festival and offering prayers.

This prohibition is part of SOPs prepared by the National Security Council (MKN) to stop the spread of the Covid-19 virus.

“I am celebrating it this year too, although I am not sure whether I will go to the hilltop temple since devotees would be made to wait to enter the temple due to the SOPs,” he said.

According to the SOPs, the temple has to be sanitised every 30 minutes before batches of devotees are allowed to enter, 500 at a time.- FMT