Batu Caves
Interesting facts
- The giant Murugan statue took about 1,550 cubic metres of concrete, 350 tonnes of steel and 300 litres of gold paint imported from Thailand.
- The statue took three years to build and was unveiled during Thaipusam in January 2006.
- The hill holds about 20 recognised caves, including four large systems of interconnected chambers.
- The American naturalist William Hornaday visited and recorded the caves in 1878, over a decade before the Hindu temple was completed.
- The name comes simply from the Malay word batu, meaning rock or stone.
- Bat guano on the cave floors feeds a native cockroach species, Pycnoscelus striatus.
Why it is worth it
Batu Caves are a set of limestone caverns inside a 325-metre tower of karst just 13 km north of Kuala Lumpur, and they are above all a place of worship. The largest cave shelters the Subramaniar Swamy temple dedicated to Murugan, reached by 272 concrete steps built in 1940 and repainted in bright colours in 2018. Beside the stairway stands a gold-painted statue of Murugan, about 43 metres tall, unveiled in 2006 and the tallest statue in Malaysia.
The temple owes its existence to K. Thamboosamy, a Tamil trader who promoted the caves as a Hindu shrine; the Murugan temple was completed in 1891, and the first Thaipusam celebration was held the following year. Today Batu Caves are the focus of Thaipusam in Malaysia. Devotees walk in procession from the Sri Mahamariamman Temple in Kuala Lumpur, bathe in the Batu River and climb to the temple carrying kavadi — burdens of offering, some decorated with peacock feathers and attached to the body with hooks and skewers. Before the caves became a shrine they served as shelters for the indigenous Temuan people, and from the 1860s Chinese settlers dug guano here for fertiliser.
The limestone itself is around 400 million years old, although the caves formed much later, probably 60 to 120 million years ago. The hill is a biodiversity refuge with about 269 recorded plant species, 21 species of bats, and endemic creatures such as the trapdoor spider Liphistius batuensis. The inner Dark Cave is protected and can only be entered on educational trips. At the foot of the hill are the Ramayana Cave with its painted scenes and a 15-metre Hanuman statue, and the north-eastern cliffs offer about 160 climbing routes. Long-tailed macaques are everywhere and will snatch food.
Getting there
Batu Caves sit in Gombak, Selangor, about 13 km north of central Kuala Lumpur. KTM Komuter trains run from KL Sentral to Batu Caves station at the foot of the hill, and bus 11 goes from the Bangkok Bank stop near Central Market. The nearest airport is Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport (SZB) in Subang, about 19 km away. Expect huge crowds during Thaipusam.
Plan your visit
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Nearby places
- Petronas Towers 9.3 km · skyscraper
- Old Kuala Lumpur Railway Station 10.9 km · railway-station
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From the encyclopaedia
Batu Caves are a series of limestone caves in Gombak, Selangor, Malaysia. It is located on a 325 m (1,066 ft)–tall mogote, about 13 km (8.1 mi) north of the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. The cave complex contains many Hindu temples, the most popular of which is a shrine dedicated to Murugan, and is the focal point of the Tamil Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia. The complex hosts a 43 m (141 ft) tall Murugan statue, amongst the tallest Murugan statues in the world.
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