Amritsar - The Golden Temple

January 15, 2019

Amritsar - The Golden Temple

Over the long weekend, while the big boys (Mike and Jack) visited Manila for a baseball tournament, Max and I took the chance to go on another Indian adventure. This time to Amritsar in Punjab. There are still a number of places on my Indian bucket list, and this was one of them.

It’s a 3 hour flight from Bangalore to the far north. I had arrange our three days through a company in Amritsar and they were providing a driver, who doubled as our our guide. Artinder was a giant of a man - his head nearly touching the roof of the Innova and his hands were twice the size of mine - but a gentle giant and a great guy.

Our first stop was the famous Golden Temple - otherwise known as Harmandir Sahib, ‘Abode of God’. It is one of the oldest places of worship for the Sikh community, who we found to be such calm, gentle people. So polite and peaceful, even asking if they could take photos with Max, rather than just grabbing him or sneaking selfies. We were quite the tourist attraction but we have started to get used to that again here in India.

There are 4 gates that lead to the temple, where you must take your shoes off and leave them outside, and then tip toe through a trough of water to cleanse yourself and, of course, everyone must cover their head. There are places everywhere outside the temple to buy scarves or head wear but my ever growing scarf collection actually came in handy for Max and I.

We were surprised at how clean the entire area within and around the temple was - the marble floor of the massive space is cleaned 3 times a day. So surprising given the huge amount of visitors daily. We visited in the early morning when it was quieter - but by 11am it was getting super busy. There are up to 100,000 people visiting the temple every day!!

Everyone is welcome - no discrimination to religion, colour or caste. It was SO busy yet it didn’t feel crowded - we didn’t join the queue to go into the actual temple to see the Holy Book, as it would take possibly 2 hours to get there and I felt it wasn’t necessary given we are not Sikhs and many pilgrims travel such a distance to go there, we didn’t want to add to the queue and we let the true worshippers enjoy that privilege.

The temple itself has a top section made of pure gold, the other lower section is gold plated. The surrounding 'tank' is considered holy and people are encouraged to dip themselves as part of their prayer to remove bad karma - however it was freezing and so many people were still stripping down to their underwear and getting in ! Ladies can also take a dip but they have a seperate building on the side that they have to enter, as they cannot be seen in less clothing in public.

The other highlight for us was visiting the large Langar at the side of the Temple Square. It is a kitchen solely run by volunteers and feeds up to 200,000 on religious days and most other days it feeds approximately 40,000. It is serves solely vegetarian food, to ensure all religions can eat together. Anyone can volunteer- cutting veggies, making chapatti’s, serving food and masala tea, clearing away, washing up. It was amazing to experience.

Max and I decided that making chapatti’s was our thing. They have two machines that make 6000 chapatti’s each hour but that isn’t enough so there is a floor space dedicated to rolling and making chapatti’s. So we crouched down on our wooden bench and rolled about 50. We were getting quite good by the end, albeit quite slow compared to the ladies next to us.

All the necessary food for the meals is donated or paid for by donations from the faithful. The temple is completely free and there is no pressure to do anything but enjoy this beautiful holy place. It was such a calm and peaceful place to visit.

This was our first visit to Punjab and the obvious first difference to the southern states is the greater number of turbans. This is mainly due to the larger Sikh community. The Sikhs wear their ‘dastaar’ everywhere as it is mandatory for sikhs to cover their head in public and in religious spaces. The more devout the man, the less likely he will be to cut his hair or beard and the turban is used to cover all that hair. I always wanted to know if the colours were of any significance - they don't, it is just each mans' preference.

Another interesting fact I didn’t know was that a Sikh will symbolise their faith by the ‘5 K’s’ which they will wear daily:

Kesh - having their hair uncut is showing that their hair was created by God as part of their body, therefore should not be cut.
Kara - a steel bracelet representing restraint
Kanga - a wooden comb representing a clean mind and body
Kachha - special cotton underwear that represent chastity
Kirpan - a small ceremonial sword showing strength and defence.

The memory of our trip to the Golden Temple will stay with us forever.

you can see the number of pilgrims walking out to the temple to see the holy book

The chain in the water is for people to hold on to while they are dipping in the water. Many Indians cannot swim and this is to ensure they do not drown while praying.