Patrick Childress makes another great video. He explains the meaning behind the Thaipusam Celebration, what they are doing as they make a public spectacle out of kavadi and piercings and the long long walk up to the temple. His photography and his wife’s videography (this video only) as they watch Thaipusam shows everything in detail, and shows the emotion of this true expression of religious devotion for a Hindu, in Penang, Malaysia.
If you want to know more, here are 2 books specific to Thaipusam and it’s meaning. As foreigners and Christians, we can only skim the surface of these Hindu rituals
It seemed a good idea to have the ship’s life raft inspected prior to setting off from Los Angeles in 2003 to cruise the world. When the present owners purchased their sailboat in 2001, it came with an Avon 6-person life raft, mounted in a hard canister on the back deck.
In Malaysia, when opened, there was no moisture in the canister and all looked promising.At the inspection station, the stainless steel retaining straps were released and the top of the hard canister removed. When opened, it was discovered to be a Pandora’s Box. The Avon raft was sitting in a mass of black muck, incubated from water that had somehow intruded into the canister. The putrid raft was rolled out on the inspection floor and inflated. To every ones surprise, it grew into a life raft and retained air. Since mildew, algae, along with extreme heat, can degrade the fabric of a life raft, the most prudent thing to do would be to replace it. The owners were so impressed with the toughness of this Avon, they decided to replace it with a new 4 Person Avon.
The new 4 Person Avon, in a canister, was purchased and mounted on deck in 2003. Five years later, the raft was inspected and repacked in October 2008 by USA Services, Inc., a certified Avon repacker, in Norfolk, VA.. The owners were not present for the repacking. In February 2013, the raft was shipped overland from Whangerei, New Zealand to Wilco Marine Services in Auckland, another certified Avon repacker. At Wilco Marine Services, the raft owners were again not present for the repacking but it was inspected, vacuum bagged, repacked and again took its place on the deck of the owners boat.
Spraying hair shampoo to look for leaks.On 26 January 2017 the now 14 year old life raft was taken to an inspection station in Penang, Malaysia. At this licensed station, but not certified by Avon, the vacuum bag was removed and the raft was rolled out on the floor, then inflated. The raft was quickly losing air. It only took a minute before the inspectors spray bottle, of diluted hair shampoo, was squirting the surfaces around the most common leak area, the inflate nozzle. But no bubbles developed. Moving around the life raft, both upper and lower chambers were wetted. This left a startling trail of large bubbles, little bubble and lines of small white bubbles. At this point, even the inflated canopy support, which gets its air from the upper chamber, was wilting. Nearly all the corner seams of both upper and lower chambers were leaking. Clearly, some of the long streaks of foaming bubbles were leaks at the folded areas when the raft was last packed. It was a catastrophic failure which fortunately happened in an inspection station and not in a terrible situation at sea.
Long lines and spots of leaks.According to Practical Sailor magazine “Avon was acquired by French competitor Zodiac in 1998. Zodiac stopped making Avon liferafts in 2004”
Information still on the Avon website recommends their rafts should be brought in for “servicing within 3 years of date of manufacture then every 3 years. Boats that operate for hire or sail in tropical waters remain subject to an annual inspection.”
An annual inspection for a life raft on a long range cruising boat is simply not physically or economically practical. It makes sense, for marine use, a life raft should to be exceedingly reliable even if specified and used for near shore use.
Leaks everywhere.No tests were done to determine exactly why the raft so thoroughly failed. However, it was the inspector’s opinion that the best material for life raft construction is neoprene, coated on both sides with urethane. The Avon’s literature says their rafts are constructed with “the unique Avon butyl fabric”. This material, Avon likes to link to the aviation industry. Even if aviation life rafts use this material for construction, aviation standards do not require the ruggedness and durability that is set for the marine industry.
Avon used several manufacturers around the world and it was not determined from which plant this raft came from. During the failed servicing, the inspector pointed to the terrible looking glued joins and said heat sealing is far superior.
In the world of life raft repacking, there is a debate about how to best protect a large deflated object which has been severely compressed into a small capsule or set in a soft valise. The question arises with vacuuming bagging. Vacuum bagging a raft may give added protection from moisture but adds additional compression on the folded creases which could cause porosity in those areas with resultant air loss. However, according to the old Avon literature, “All Avon Ocean and Coastline life rafts are now vacuum sealed in special plastic envelope, before being packed in a valise or canister.” So the vacuum packing of the raft when serviced in New Zealand was the manufacturer’s preference to which, the owners had complied. Additionally, if a severely compressed life raft is sitting on deck in a tropical sun, temperatures of 160 degrees can be reached, further affecting the already stressed material. But one would think life raft manufacturers understand this and use that certainty as a component of their construction, the same as an architect specifies proper building materials to stand against U.V., wind loading and temperature changes. (See the February 2013 issue of Practical Sailor, “Life Raft Inspection an Inside Look”) If a life raft manufacturer thought sun shining on a deck mounted life raft to be a significant problem, then a sun cover would be suggested. In any case, the owners always had a sun cover shielding the raft.
The raft canister was always covered with a light colored sun shade.Attempting to reach Avon, the raft owner tried sending an email to them at info@avon-inflatable.com which is listed on an Avon website. The raft owners received the following automated response: “Due to the amount of spam received, we will not read your e-mail. If you want to get in touch with us, please contact us through our website contact form.” Others who tried this site were directed to a German language site which had nothing to do with life rafts.
On the www.avonmarine.com website, the raft owner found a contact form under the “Find a Dealer” link, and tried several times to send a message using that form, but kept getting the following: “Failed to send your message. Please try later or contact the administrator by another method.”
Certainly the raft owners would like feed back from Zodiac/Avon now known as Zodiac Nautic. But it gets even more confusing as there is another brand of “Zodiac” liferafts owned by SurvivetechZodiac. Over the years operations have been spun off, bought and sold or acquired by other companies.
Avon literature on the internet states the 4 Person Avon life raft is guaranteed for 12 years. But a guarantee term is not considered an expiration date. A reasonable person would expect this raft to be serviceable for many years past the guarantee date. This is a wake up call for the owners of all life rafts to take nothing for granted.
The raft was purchased on March 12, 2003 and the cost was $2,922.75.
Raft serial #AVBOA983L203
As a postscript. When this Avon raft was manufactured, Zodiac had contracted the manufacture of Avon liferafts to several companies in different countries. Apparently the quality assurance was not consistent. Working through a liferaft dealer, the raft owner was able to get a response from Zodiac and Zodiac was willing to sell the owners a new raft at cost. When the owners agreed to this proposal and tried to arrange shipment of the raft, they lost all communication with their contact at Zodiac. In the end, they bought a Lalizas raft.
Some of this information was used in Practical Sailor articles March 8, 2017 and Features April 2017 Issue
I remember seeing these images on “Believe It Or Not” or maybe an “In Search Of” sort of TV show. But that seemed to be in some far away TV land place, yet now, we stumbled right into the middle of it
Thaipusam is a key Hindu ceremony that is held each year during the full moon in the tenth month of the Hindu calendar. In 2017 it was held over the 7,8,9th of February. In 2018 it well be held in January.
“The word Thaipusam is a combination of the name of the month, Thai, January/February, and the name of a star, Pusam. This particular star is at its highest point during the festival. The festival commemorates the occasion when Parvati, the Hindu goddess of fertility, love and devotion; as well as of divine strength and power, gave Murugan, the universal granter of wishes a “spear” so he could vanquish the evil demon Soorapadman.” The motive
of the Thaipusam festival is to pray to Murugan to receive his grace so that bad traits are destroyed or favors granted or to make penance for transgressions.
Thaipusam takes place in several cities in Malaysia but the second largest celebration is in Penang. From the city streets in Penang, it is 4 miles to Waterfall Temple located on a mountainside outside the city.
First, along the route, stacks of shelled brown coconuts are donated by families or civic groups so the crowds can break them on the pavement. The broken coconut symbolizes the breaking of ones bad ego to reveal purity inside. But by far, most onlookers have a great romp of smashing as many coconuts as are available onto the street and send the coconut water and shards flying. It makes a tremendous mess but the organizers come soon behind with sweepers to shove the shards aside. This makes way for the gold and silver chariots. The golden chariot is pulled by 2 small water buffalo. The smaller silver chariot is pulled by people. These chariots carry dignitaries. After they pass, front end loaders and dump trucks follow to clean up the masses of coconuts shards along the side of the street.
Hindus, throughout the day and year, seem to always be burning incense and leaving plates of offerings to the gods, whether in designated offering spots outside their home or on the sidewalks. On this day, they hand the offerings to the attendants of the chariots where the offering is tipped off the plate into the chariot and the plate is returned to the donor.
Devotees will make the 4 mile pilgrimage walking barefoot on the black pavement. Water trucks move along the route to help cool the surface but in the 90 degree weather, the surfaces quickly dry and heat up again. Asphalt can become 40 to 60 degrees hotter than the air temperature. This is only part of the burden met by the devotees.
“On the month leading up to the pilgrimage, the devotee will have mainly subsisted on a heavily
restricted diet and then completely fast on the last few days before the pilgrimage; naturally, these extremes demand of very high level of mental and physical fortitude.”
The most basic devotee will carry on his head, a pewter or silver pot of milk, a symbol of purity and virtue. Holding a pot of milk on ones head for a nonstop 4 mile march, then trekking up countless concrete steps to the
temple, is no easy feat. Other devotees will become far more extreme in their efforts.
A Kavadis, literally “sacrifice at every step”, is a large, heavy, contraption extending out from the shoulders and towering over the head. Some Kavadis rest on pads on the shoulders and around the waist. Other devotees take the excessive discomfort by attaching the Kavadis with countless spears threaded into the outer layer of skin to spread the load. Since there is exposed skin left,
why not dangle shells, beads, or any other sort of decoration from tiny hooks piercing the skin of the chest, back, arms, cheeks, forehead. The mouth and tongue is an impressive piercing spot leaving little opportunity for a devotee to drink or eat along the marching route. Some devotees prefer to just bite down on a spear rather than piercing it through their cheeks.
Of course, the most notable devotees are those who
harness themselves with many hooks on their backs then have reins held by an attendant. The devotee must lean forward to make progress literally pulling the skin away from their back.
The small temples along the route often have booths where they hand out sweet fruit drinks in small paper cups. Closer to the temple, large vats of noodles with tofu, among other vegetarian meals or snacks, are ladled into plastic containers and handed to the crowds. Otherwise, there are plenty of food stalls where the crowd can pay for traditional food and souvenirs, all lining the streets leading to the base of the temple hill.
The third day of celebrations is anticlimactic. The gold and silver chariots return to their home temple in the city and the cleanup of trash begins.
It is amazing how trash was strewn around the grounds of the sacred temple. Paper cups and all sorts of plastic containers were trampled underfoot and blew in the breeze. People just dropped their trash wherever. This was not all their fault as the temple organizers provided very few trash cans around the grounds. By the end of the second day, the temple grounds were a trash pit. Any other festival, during this time of the Chinese New Year, was well organized with plenty of trash cans and a detail of workers always working through the celebration picking what little trash was
littered. There is a lot of cultural diversity in Malaysia butsadly, at times, the diversity has stark differences.
“The word Thaipusam is a combination of the name of the month, Thai, January/February, and the name of a star, Pusam. This particular star is at its highest point during the festival. The festival commemorates the occasion when 
of the Thaipusam festival is to pray to Murugan to receive his grace so that bad traits are destroyed or favors granted or to make penance for transgressions.
are donated by families or civic groups so the crowds can break them on the pavement. The broken coconut symbolizes the breaking of ones bad ego to reveal purity inside. But by far, most onlookers have a great romp of smashing as many coconuts as are available onto the street and send the coconut water and shards flying. It makes a tremendous mess but the organizers come soon behind with sweepers to shove the shards aside. This makes way for the gold and silver chariots. The golden chariot is pulled by 2 small water buffalo. The smaller silver chariot is pulled by people. These chariots carry dignitaries. After they pass, front end loaders and dump trucks follow to clean up the masses of coconuts shards along the side of the street.
Devotees will make the 4 mile pilgrimage walking barefoot on the black pavement. Water trucks move along the route to help cool the surface but in the 90 degree weather, the surfaces quickly dry and heat up again. Asphalt can become 40 to 60 degrees hotter than the air temperature. This is only part of the burden met by the devotees.
restricted diet and then completely fast on the last few days before the pilgrimage; naturally, these extremes demand of very high level of mental and physical fortitude.”
more extreme in their efforts.
decoration from tiny hooks piercing the skin of the chest, back, arms, cheeks, forehead. The mouth and tongue is an impressive piercing spot leaving little opportunity for a devotee to drink or eat along the marching route. Some devotees prefer to just bite down on a spear rather than piercing it through their cheeks.
harness themselves with many hooks on their backs then have reins held by an attendant. The devotee must lean forward to make progress literally pulling the skin away from their back.
It is amazing how trash was strewn around the grounds of the sacred temple. Paper cups and all sorts of plastic containers were trampled underfoot and blew in the breeze. People just dropped their trash wherever. This was not all their fault as the temple organizers provided very few trash cans around the grounds. By the end of the second day, the temple grounds were a trash pit. Any other festival, during this time of the Chinese New Year, was well organized with plenty of trash cans and a detail of workers always working through the celebration picking what little trash was
cultural diversity in Malaysia butsadly, at times, the diversity has stark differences.
