Priests perform prayers before the statues were reinstalled at the Sree Muneeswarar Amman temple yesterday. — Picture by Marcus Pheong
IPOH, May 12 — The desecration of the Sree Muneeswarar Amman temple in Jalan Raja Ashman Shah here saw closure yesterday after nine statues broken by an intruder on April 24 were reinstalled.
The temple began two days of prayers to mark the auspicious reinstallation of the statues.
The statues were among the nine Hindu planetary gods.
Temple committee chairman A. Silvanathan said the first prayers were held from 8am to noon before resuming from 4pm to 9pm.
He said the high point was at 7pm when devotees dipped their fingers in oil and touched the statues to receive blessings.
“We rushed to do this because we don’t want devotees to come and see an empty shrine,” he said.
“Hopefully the incident will become part of history. It is important we forgive and forget because Hinduism is a religion of peace.
“We want peace and not only tolerance but acceptance of other people’s faiths.”
Silvanathan said the granite statues, which cost about RM6,000 in total, were cleansed for four to five days before the prayers were performed.
In the incident, a man allegedly entered the temple and broke the statues.
Silvanathan said the prayers would continue from 6am today.
Perak government representatives and the police were invited to attend the ceremony.
He said the invitations were extended as a gesture of gratitude to the authorities.