This resource is part of the Singapore and Malaysia: 2016 series.

Summary

Located some 14 km from central Kuala Lumpur, Batu caves are now one of the most important centres for Hindu pilgrimage and worship in the world. Forming part of Malaysia’s extensive limestone karst scenery and dating back some 400 million years, Batu caves were originally located within tropical rain forest. Extensive urbanisation has now left the caves as a tourist honeypot within suburban Kuala Lumpur. Urbanisation and tourism are now impacting both positively and negatively on the caves.

Visitors to Batu caves, whether pilgrims intent on kavadi or generalists seeking photogenic experiences, no doubt bring economic benefit. For a rapidly developing country to have one of Hinduism’s most sacred shrines on the doorstep of its capital brings cultural kudos. However, there are many complex and inter-related issues that need addressing for the long term benefit of the environment.

Curriculum Links – A level

• Tourism
• Impacts of urbanisation

Key Words

• Tourism as a double-edged sword
• Honeypot
• Karst scenery
• Sustainability
• Urban development

Questions to consider

1. Can the Batu Caves be developed sustainably?
2. Should limestone quarrying be allowed again in the greater KL area?
3. Should visitor numbers be controlled at the Batu Caves and, if so, how?
4. What are the main conflicts of interest at the Batu Caves and how might these be reconciled?

Background information

The religious significance of the Batu caves

The need for labour arising from Malaysia’s developing rubber industry led to inward migration from the Indian sub-continent in the 19th century. Whilst 80% of migrants were deemed “working class” some 20% of inward migration was of a more educated class consisting of financiers, police and military.

The migrants were predominantly Hindu Indian Tamils and this helped shape the religious development of the caves. Hinduism is a religion brought to a previously mainly Buddhist Malaya by the more educated migrants seeking to retain their beliefs in a foreign land.

Associated with Hindu places of worship, natural environments such as hills, remote locations, jungle and rivers, have long been preferred locations for deity worship. The Batu caves fulfilled all of these requirements. In particular, the vel (spear)-shaped entrance to the caves inspired believers to create a place of worship onto which cultural and religious mythology has been superimposed.

Modelled on Palani in southern India, the first Thaipusam (major religious festival) was held in 1888. Believers seek prosperity and good luck in their lives through worship of the god Murugan (son of Shiva). The annual festival itself holds no fixed date being linked to the lunar cycle in a similar way to the Christian festival of Easter. It takes place in January or February and now attracts over one million pilgrims.

Ritualised “burden” bearing (Kavadi) sees devotees submitting to the will of the deity through acts of body piercing, emulating Hindu mythology where Shiva asked Agastya (a sage) to move two mountains. In doing so Agastya commissioned the demon Idumban to undertake the task. Idumban tied the two mountains to a pole strung across his back, using sacred serpents. In doing so Idumban had his malevolence and simple-mindedness diminished.

Devotees undertaking Kavadi now pierce (or have pierced for them by helpers) their bodies with hooks, have their tongues and cheeks pierced (to signify silence) and are led towards the temple, with string attached to the hooks, emulating Itampu’s task. In doing so, they achieve a state of “other worldliness” and become, themselves, mini temples worthy of worship.

The main temple complex is believed by adherents to be outside space and time with visitors passing through the gates entering a place with direct links to other worlds. The popularity of the caves as a place of religious observation and pilgrimage, at a time of increasingly rapid urbanisation, has now left them vulnerable to negative impacts.

The impacts of tourism and urbanisation on the Batu caves

Population expansion in the greater Kuala Lumpur area has seen the Batu caves being swallowed up within the greater Kuala Lumpur area leaving the once isolated hill surrounded by urban development. Kuala Lumpur has seen its population increase seven-fold over the period 1950 to 2010 and today (2017) is probably around 7.3 million. Most of this expansion has taken place in suburban areas such as around the Batu caves some 10 kms north of the city centre.

Annual visitor numbers are in the millions and the caves are linked directly to central Kuala Lumpur by train. However, there is no government control over underground cave development and surface development within the karstic environment, and this presents its own challenges. Impacts can be examined in terms of visitors, quarrying and flora and fauna.

Visitor impacts

Along with religion as a dominant driver of tourism, the Batu caves are now becoming a centre for adventure tourism. It is possible to learn to rock climb and undertake caving trips beyond the main chambers. Some may find it difficult to reconcile adventure tourism with the major religious uses made of the caving system.

The management of the caves is not government controlled and this had led to conflict between local government and what can best be described as private enterprise run by a committee. Rock falls are not unheard of as safety management is not a primary concern. Increasing amounts of graffiti are being reported in some of the lesser visited caves within the complex. Whilst some may be of historical interest (e.g. that left by early explorers and communist guerrillas in the 1950s) more recent graffiti despoils the “other-worldly” nature of the site.

Quarrying

Limestone has been quarried from nearby hills for many years. A key ingredient of cement, demand for limestone is high within Malaysia as the country develops. Being on the doorstep of the capital city and thus with good transport links to the rest of the country, limestone can be transported quickly and efficiently to all parts of mainland Malaysia. Such quarrying has become a controversial issue especially in sensitive locations such as the Batu caves.

Local use of explosives is known to have created shock waves that have loosened rocks within the Batu cave system. In 1988 quarrying ceased when environmental campaigners made use of a legal loophole to prevent quarrying companies from legally purchasing explosives. The Batu caves were declared “safe” in 1994 but rock falls continue to occur.

Fauna and flora

Caves develop their own unique fauna and flora and the Batu cave system is no exception. It is now possible for visitors to follow the “flora and fauna fun trail” as part of the Batu caves experience. Of particular concern to conservationists is the rapid decline (90%) of the Batu caves trapdoor spider. Officially designated a reserve in the 1930s, no management to protect the area has ever been set up.

Guano mining, quarrying and visitor numbers have impacted on species adapted to low (or no) light conditions including the resident bat population. Lack of a management plan and a failure of the Malaysian government to pursue UNESCO World Heritage Status leave the caves liable to further endemic species decline.

Conversely, “alien” species, introduced on visitors’ footwear and clothing, such as freshwater snails (first recorded in 2011), are increasing in number. Subsequent competition with and displacement of endemic fauna will seriously alter the fragile balance within this vulnerable subterranean ecosystem.

There remains a low threat to visitor health from histoplasmosis, a fungal infection associated with guano, along with Weil’s disease caused by microorganisms in water. Of more direct threat to visitors is the large number of monkeys at Batu caves which can become aggressive in search of food and may in themselves harbour disease. Indirectly monkeys may encourage an increase in the resident rat population of the outer cave area (through food droppings) potentially leading to an increase in Weil’s disease through the increased production of rat urine.

Residential development

Planned residential development is likely to continue for some time in the greater Kuala Lumpur region. Increased population brings its own controversies to the cave management debate; groundwater pollution and water extraction are but two. Leachates from surface waste can find their way into the cave system altering the chemical balance within. Subsequent impacts on microorganisms and thus the speleobiotic food chain have yet to be studied within the Batu caves but are known to have caused long term negative impacts on cave systems elsewhere.

Being located on top of karst limestone, feasibility studies into groundwater extraction have taken place which could see the augmentation of urban water supply (currently reservoirs) with subsurface extraction from within the cave system. Of environmental concern is the urban expansion of Kuala Lumpur on top of areas likely to contain subsurface voids and sinkholes.

3D hazard mapping has shown that these exist in a small area of the greater Kuala Lumpur area, creating potential surface collapse scenarios of residential, industrial and transport infrastructure. Thus that which is visible to the tourist and religious observer at Batu caves is just one part of a much greater, interconnected, subsurface karstic landscape.

Economic and cultural benefits

Visitors to Batu caves, whether pilgrims intent on kavadi or generalists seeking photogenic experiences, no doubt bring economic benefit. For a rapidly developing country to have one of Hinduism’s most sacred shrines on the doorstep of its capital, brings cultural kudos. However, there are many complex and inter-related issues that need addressing, for the long term benefit of the environment.

Background information is provided by Study Tour participant Ian Dixson.

References

YouTube (2013). Batu caves near Kuala Lumpur.
Bing Maps. Kuala Lumpur. 
Cox, W. (2013) The Evolving Urban Form. Kuala Lumpur
Kasim, A. (2011) Balancing Tourism and Religious Experience: Understanding Devotees’ Perspectives on Thaipusam in Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia. Journal of Hospitality, Marketing and Management. Vol. 20. Issue 3-4.
Nadaraja, R. (2018). Batu Caves. Murugan.org
Sim. D. (2015). Thaipusam Festival: Hindus with facial and body piercings make pilgrimage to Malaysia’s Batu Caves. International Business Times
Batu Caves. Wikipedia.