The world’s tallest statue of Lord Murugan was unveiled at Puthiragoundampalayam in the Salem district of Tamil Nadu. The statue has a height of 146 feet and was opened for devotees to perform kumbabishekam.
Built by a trust in Puthiragoundanpalayam, the statue stands taller than the Pathumalai Murugan statue in Malaysia with a height of 140 feet.
When the statue was inaugurated in Salem, rose petals were showered on it by a helicopter. The ordination also witnessed thousands of devotees flocking to the temple grounds to worship and attend the puja ceremony.
Apparently, it was Malaysia’s Murugan statue that inspired the statue’s construction in Salem. The chairman of Sri Muthumalai Murugan Trust, N Sridhar, wanted to build a statue, the tallest Murugan statue in his hometown of Attur.
Sridhar reportedly thought that not everyone can go to Malaysia to worship the deity there, so he has to bring one to the Salem district. Later in 2014, Sridhar who is also a businessman decided to build a temple and Muthumalai Murugan statue on his land.
Sridhar even hired sculptor Tiruvarur Thiyagarajan to build the statue. Interestingly, he was the same sculptor who built the Murugan statue in Malaysia in 2006. It took Sridhar almost two years to start the construction process of the statue.
Meanwhile, the Lord Murugan statue in Malaysia stands at Batu Caves and is one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside of India. It is the tallest Hindu statue in Malaysia and it took three years to be built by sculptors. It took 350 tons of steel bars, 300 liters of gold paint and 1,550 cubic meters to build the beautiful structure. In addition, 15 sculptors were brought from India to carve the statue.
It is painted gold and made of reinforced concrete. It stands next to a staircase of 272 steps that leads visitors to the Batu Caves. It is believed that the cave was not a place of worship until an Indian merchant named K Thamboosamy Pillai placed a small statue of Lord Murugan in 1892.
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