Hundreds of thousands of Malaysian Hindus made their annual pilgrimage to a 113-year-old limestone cave temple to celebrate Thaipusam, where devotees pierce their bodies with sharp hooks and skewers in self-mortification.

In a colorful festival steeped in rituals and mystery, worshippers with skewers dangling from their tongues, cheeks, chests and backs shouldered heavy and elaborately-designed structures called kavadis as they walked barefoot up the 272 steps to the Batu Caves temple as a penance for the Lord Muruga.

Thaipusam is celebrated by some two million ethnic Indians in several places in Malaysia but the grandest event is at Batu Caves outside Kuala Lumpur, which has attracted an estimated 1.5 million devotees and tourists this year, officials said.

The temple ground has taken on a carnival air and many worshippers, including women and babies, had their heads shorn bald as part of their penance during the one-day festival, which is also celebrated in India and Singapore.

Hindu scriptures say Muruga, the youngest son of the paramount Lord Shiva, eliminated a demonic clan with his divine spear and lived on a mountain for part of his life, thus the festival's emphasis on hills.

Hindu priests conduct prayers at a river near Batu Caves for devotees, who enter into a trance and can be seen puffing cigars as they are pierced. The ceremony is swift and no blood is shed during the piercing and removal.

Ant-bite

There is no medical or scientific explanation for this and devotees say they are protected by the spirit of the Lord Muruga.

"It felt like an ant-bite. There was no pain, no blood. God has entered my body and gave me strength," Rajasegaran, 21, who had 48 sharp hooks decorated with rose petals and leaves pierced through his bare back, told AFP after completing his pilgrimage.

Rajasegaran said he and three brothers, aged between 25 and 19, had their backs pierced and carried kavadis for the first time this year to fulfil a vow after their father was cured of a heart ailment last year.

They will do this for the next three years but the preparation is not easy. He said they had to fast for 48 days, living on a single vegetarian meal daily, and abstain from smoking, drinking and all forms of self-indulgence to purify themselves.

M Thevarajoo, secretary of the Sri Maha Mariamman Temple, estimated that this year there were some 4,000 devotees carrying huge multi-colored kavadis weighing between 50 and 100 kilograms in Batu Caves.

"Thaipusam is an auspicious occasion for Hindus and many of them are here to fulfil their vows," he said.

Thevarajoo described as a "miracle" the fact that devotees do not bleed when they are pierced. If they bleed it may mean they have done "something wrong", he said.

The procession of men with heavy kavadis swaying in a trance to Indian drumbeats, women carrying pitchers of milk on their heads up to the temple, and devotees smashing coconuts to mark the victory of good over evil also kept Western tourists enthralled.

"It's amazing but it's also quite crazy. I've never seen anything like this before," said Nicholas Sundman, 21, from Finland. - AFP