The Golden Temple is a Sikh Temple; the main one where all Sikhs are required during their lifetimes to make a pilgrimage. The Sikh religion was founded by a Guru around Amritsar so the area is largely Sikh; this can be easily seen because Sikh men never cut their hair and wrap it up in colorful turbans; so the city of Amritsar was full of turbaned men; I've included a photo below of a group of Sikh men at the temple with their turbans.
We dropped off our shoes, covered our heads and walked through the main gate and down a staircase to see the temple floating in a large pool of water.
Immediately as we walked in we saw people kneeling and praying and noticed men bathing in the water. The water is considered holy, so the men would strip down to their undergarments and go in and dunk under a few times which cleanses them of their sins. There were also two smallish enclosed areas where they women could go in the water. It was quite remarkable seeing men of all ages going in; my personal favorite was a grandfather holding his very young grandson and going in the water together.
The area around the temple is square with four gates and through one of the gates was a large kitchen where the pilgrims could go and eat together; not separated by wealth or anything - everyone is equal. There were literally thousands of trays ready for people to come to eat.
We slowly walked around the pool, enjoying the quiet and sacred atmosphere; all the while music was piping through of men chanting and drums playing. We came to the walkway to the temple and joined the other hundreds of people in line and very very slowly walked to the temple. Everyone was squished together but yet no one pushed or prodded - the first time ever in India I've stood in line and everyone respected the line. If you click on the photo below you can see all the people on the walkway. While we were in line some of the men around me joined in singing to the music. It was really quite the experience; standing with hundreds of pilgrims in the middle of a pool while they are singing quietly.
The actual temple was beautiful; the lower level is marble inlay, some of the most beautiful I've seen (which is saying something), and inside I found the source of the music, 2 holy men singing from the holy book while others played drums quietly and people sat around listening to them. We walked through quietly and then back down the walkway; at the end of which we were given a sweet - not sure the connection with the temple but it was yummy.
And then, after over 2 hours of taking in the beautiful temple and wonderful atmosphere we finally left.
What did we do next? Well that is for tomorrow's blog. For now enjoy the temple...
1 comment:
The Sikhs have the right idea. I would much rather go swimming than have to go into a confessional to cleanse me of my sins. So, when are we going to get the stories about Punjabi food?
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