First, a little background; Amritsar is a one of the oldest cities in India. The Sikh (Seek) people, one of the Hindu sects, come to Amritsar to spend time at the Golden Temple. Here they can pray, eat, chant and bathe in the holy waters. It is the lifelong dream of all Sikhs to come to the Golden Temple at least once in their lifetimes.
Here is a picture of the Golden Temple in the daytime.
Many people come to the temple. Some of them can live here if they have no other place to live. This mother was feeding her newborn infant when I walked by and asked to take her picture.
These nice ladies are washing the dishes that people use for the meals they can eat here 24 hours a day. It is the belief of the Hindus that all people must be cared for whether they are family members or not. Notice the crazy electrical wiring.
These men are cleaning the large "Lake of Nectar" that surrounds the Golden Temple. Men and boys can dip their bodies in it to rid themselves of sin. Women are not allowed in the "Lake of Nectar."
Here are the men bathing in the "Lake of Nectar." No one thinks it unusual to see the men remove almost all their clothes and hop in the warm, cloudy water.
This many tiered overhang is above the doorway to the temple canteen. Thousands of people are fed a very good meal here every day. The canteen is open all day and all night for whoever might be hungry.
Most people eat sitting on woven mats on the floor in long aisles in the dining room (canteen). About fifty people sit on each of several woven floor mats facing each other in this huge room. Servers come along and ladle out beans and rice and hand out chapatis (a tortilla shaped bread). The rice was sweet, the beans were seasoned well and the chapatis were crisp and warm. These men and women had their own dining room along another corridor of the temple.
This old man sat next to me at lunch. He wanted to carry my dishes to the kitchen for washing after we ate, but I insisted on carrying his out of respect for his age.
There's nothing like a good cup of chai (tea) after a hearty meal. We're served from big aluminum containers like the coolers we use when camping.
Here is the plate rack. Before entering the canteen, each person is given a spoon from a pail, a plate from this rack and a small bowl. We drink chai from bowls also, but those are given when you leave the canteen and come back outside to drink your tea.
This nice man gave me a tour of the chapati kitchen. Sikh men wear turbans and must have their beards a certain length. If the beard is longer than allowed, they tie them up with a ladies' hair net! Many huge machines mix and flour and water, form the hockey puck shaped dough pieces, flatten the dough and then cook it two times so both sides are crisp and brown. There are no doors on the kitchen, so the flies are having a great time flying around, eating the scraps!
Shops like these are found close to the Golden Temple. People buy flowers, bags of rice and other offerings for Shiva, one of the most holy figures in the Hindu religion. There are many thousands of gods in this religion. Hindus choose one of the three or four most important gods to worship and then can pray to other lesser gods for more protection.
When visiting Amritsar, tourists will often travel the 25 km to Wagha, the border city between India and Pakistan to witness the nightly closing of the border. Soldiers guard the checkpoint very carefully. Visitors are only allowed to bring certain things to the border with them - cameras, passports and water (it's very hot). Here I am fooling around with the official but very friendly border police. Women are invited to dance to the Indian music blaring from the loudspeakers. Men are not allowed to dance during this nightly ceremony.
Thousands of people gather on both sides of the border. Indians and Pakistanis each cheer loudly for their country while soldiers dressed in fancy costumes march back and forth on their own side of the border. Eventually, the gates close and the flags come down from their poles at the crossing until the next morning. Each country has a gate for its own side of the border.
My camera does not take good pictures at night. However, I did want you to get an idea of the beauty of the Golden Temple when evening comes around. The lights and gold paint reflecting off the water make it a beautiful sight, indeed.
These men own the drum shop near the temple where I purchased a set of tablas for Evan. They are drums made of metal, wood and goatskin that are played in the temples during prayer ceremonies. The man in the background has a shop in Vancouver, Canada. He sends huge containers of drums to North America where Sikhs and other people can buy them. They cost about eight times as much in Canada as they do here in India.
I'll end here and say, "Ta ta!"
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