Malaysians Revisit Batu Caves History With Old Footage: Dissecting Facts And Perception

For as long as we can remember, Batu Caves has been the primary site of worship for Hindu devotees in Malaysia.

In fact, it is argued as one of the most well-known Hindu places of worship in the world outside of India according to a 2018 case study by a few students of Management and Science University (MSU) and University Sains Malaysia (USM).

Interestingly, Batu Caves has not always been a Hindu temple, given that the hollow limestone formation itself has been around for around 400 million years according to historians and geologists.

A video that has been circulating on social media made a few claims about Batu Caves being originally a settlement of the Temuan Orang Asli tribe.

But how true is this? Let’s do a cross check of the claims.

So who were the first recorded human beings there?

The first thing the video said was that this tribe lived around the cave (not in it) in 1867 before the British attempted to establish a coffee plantation in 1872.

The research paper done by the MSU and USM students, titled ‘Batu Caves As A Religious Destination’, noted that the Temuan people used cave entrances in the area as shelter for when they were out hunting.

This is prior to the 1860s so we’re not sure how long they’ve been there except for a separate study done by Ritsumeikan University in 2013 which said the Proto-Malays (another term for Orang Asli) arrived on the Malay Peninsula in 2,000 BC.

As far as we know, the Temuan didn’t even explore the caves. They just mostly hung out around the cave openings and the surrounding area.

So far, the claim about the Temuan people being there first appears to be true, and a 2002 research journal mentioned that an area was cleared for a coffee estate but it’s said to be around the 1890s instead of 1872.

Chinese settlers came to Batu Caves to extract bat poop in the 1860s

By the 1860s, Malaysia has already been under British colonial rule for some time, if you remember your sejarah lessons in school.

The Mat Sallehs brought in workers from China and India, and we mostly know that the Chinese were here to work in mines. But, some were also here as labourers, merchants, and planters.

It was the planters who frequented Batu Caves to collect bat guano to be used as fertilizer for their farms.

At the time, the caves were not famous yet as only locals and those who were familiar with the area would go in them. Even then, no one had gone deep into the caves yet.

The caves only became known to the world in the 1870s

Englishment Daly and Syers, who were part of the British colonial authority, along with American naturalist and zoologist William Hornaday, found out about the caves in 1878 and decided to put it down in records for the whole world to know.

Hornaday went down in history as the man who officially discovered the caves.

But what was Hornaday doing all the way here that time? Well naturally, as a naturalist, he was presumably here to study our Southeast Asian jungles and wrote a book about them titled ‘Two Years In The Jungle’ where he made several mentions of Batu Caves.

Going back to the video, the next claim was that the Temuan people used the caves as shelter, and that was already cleared up earlier. It also said the British came to take over the area with Indian farmers in 1883 to start a coffee plantation, but the project failed and the area was turned into a rubber estate instead.

We couldn’t find any official account of that except for a Facebook post credited to one Nordin Hock, who said a road leading to the coffee plantation in the area was built in 1883, with Indians primarily from South India moving in to work there.

A local Indian merchant founded the temple

Fast forward to 1891, K. Thamboosamy Pillay – a merchant here at the time – was looking for a suitable place to worship Lord Murugan, the Hindu god of war.

When he stumbled upon what is Batu Caves today, he was awed by the mouth of the cave, which resembled a ‘Vel’, which is the head of a celestial spear wielded by Lord Murugan.

Inspired by this vision, Pillay built a temple in Lord Murugan’s name and installed a sacred statue of him. A year later, in 1892, the first Thaipusam at Batu Caves was celebrated.

The next part of the video said the iconic 272-step staircase was built in 1920, which we found was true!

It was first built using wood, before being being replaced with concrete in 1930. Later in 2006, the gold Lord Murugan statue was unveiled and it was the tallest Hindu god statue in the world at the time, standing at 140 feet. The tallest one now is the Vishwas Swaroopam statue in India at a whopping 420 feet.

Temuan people made the carvings in Batu Caves?

The video claimed that the carvings and features in Batu Caves were actually made by the Temuan tribe, but we did not find any evidence of that.

All we found was that the carvings and sculptures in Batu Caves temple were primarily made by Indian artisans brought from South India during the late 19th and 20th centuries.

The video also said the Japanese used Batu Caves as an ammo dump during World War 2. This part is true, as there are photos from the Imperial War Museums archive with the description:

“Japanese prisoners of war stack empty shell cases in a former Japanese ammunition store in limestone caves at Batu, Selangor State, near Kuala Lumpur. These cases were later broken up for scrap.”

Batu Caves today

Well there you have it, a very storied past of one of the most famous Hindu worshipping sites in the world today. And we, as Malaysians, should be proud to have it!

The once dreary staircase now boasts a vibrant rainbow makeover and Thaipusam celebrations attract over a million devotees and visitors each year.

Apart from its religious significance, Batu Caves is also a popular spot for rock climbing, nature exploration, and experiencing Malaysia’s rich cultural heritage.

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