#op forgive me i think you know which post im referencing tho

[egyptian-sun-god]

I honestly think a good amount of tamil people that say that the Penang Thaipusam is better/ more "calm" is also cause 1. To be very very fair as someone who has been both, the kootam is more divided nowadays. Especially cause there's two ther/rathams/chariots so the kavadi kootam and paal kodam would be split between both whereas when I want Batu Caves damn packed the entire way.

But also more than a racial factor the politics around Penang Thaipusam vs Batu Caves circle around the caste based politics as well. Because Penang Thaipusam is originally a Chettiar celebration of Thaipusam. The temple that they go to is Chettiar temple which is why there is two separate ratham and completely separate timing for kavadi. Chetti Kavadi always goes first before "matha aalu" kavadi. Mind you this is recent, till 2017 other caste people wouldn't even be allowed to get up/go help with the ratham and get involved and only after a lot of politics the Chettiar community agreed and having two separate rathams.

Batu Caves on the other hand isn't a chettiar temple or celebration of Thaipusam. In KL the Chettiar Kavadi goes to the Sentul Murugan temple so Batu Caves always has been an overall unsegregated Tamil Thaipusam. Which is more of why you have respectability politics coming into play now as to the "more rowdy" or the less devotional Thaipusam celebrations.

It's not that its less rowdy. Its just that it doesn't conform to your precise norms of devotion. And what forms of prayer are appropriate are not. This sort of respectability segregation is famous in Hinduism and devotion.

discovered a club mix of murugan devotionals from you guessed it, malaysians. thaipusam as a festival practiced in diaspora, especially from indentured labor on plantations is such an interesting evolution. i remember my mom telling me how thaipusam has a lot of connotations and associations with plantation culture.