Amritsar! (The Golden Temple)

The Golden Temple aka “Sick” Temple as Michelle calls it. It’s pronounced “Seek” Sikh. She's from New Jersey...

We left right after Tibetan class on Friday and quickly jumped into the jeeps and took off!!! The whole crew came but Hong Kong didn’t come because her friend was in town. We missed her a lot. Craig also came and a guy (Sam) who is studying at Sarah also came. The jeep ride alone was half of the adventure!!!! Besides the fact that I still was a bit sick and that I got the middle seat with no window, the ride was a great experience. We started around 3:30pm and made it to Amritsar by about 9pm? Maybe earlier. We got stopped by the Punjabi police so many times! They kept getting bribes from our drivers. Who knows what was going on. But we made it!

Quick background on the Sikh relgion:

“Sikh” means disciple. A sikh person believes in One God and teachings of the Ten Gurus, which are enshrined in the Sikh Holy Book, the Guru Granth Sahib. The Sikh religion was founded in 1469 near Lahore (Pakistan) (Mom, tell grandpa). There were nine gurus, each succeeded each other, who lived a very spiritual life but took part in the secular world. The tenth guru initiated the baptism ceremony that gave Sikh’s a distinctive identity. Before the tenth guru passed away he ordained the holy scripture would be the ultimate spiritual authority for the Sikhs. (Whenever I talk about “the book” it’s the Sikh’s holy scripture.) The fifth guru (who compiled and edited the book) also built… Darbar Sahib! (The Golden Temple!) The Golden Temple is the “nucleus of Sikhism”. One main focus of the Sikh religion is volunteerism. Meals are free and the kitchen is ALWAYS open, lodging is free, the bathrooms are SO clean, the squat toilets flush, and everybody is very receptive towards western travelers. Also, another thing, Sikh’s don’t cut their hair. There are many many more details about the Sikh faith and I’m so sorry for how brief this is. Please add comments as you feel necessary. The Sikh faith is extremely intereting and I urge everyone to go look it up!

Once we got to the Golden temple we locked up our belongings in the cupboards for western travelers and headed to the kitchen! Lentils, bread, water and a rice thing made for a great dinner! After dinner Sam, Julia, Michelle, Nellie and I ventured over to the Golden Temple. (As you walk onto the grounds of the Golden Temple you walk past the kitchen, wash off your feet, walk down some stairs, you are greeted by the HUGE reflecting pool, then you walk clockwise around to the golden temple which is in the middle of the reflecting pool.) We were lucky enough to see the book being put to sleep! There was beautiful music and wonderful offerings given to us (a sweet poriege type food). After the book went to bed we were wiped out so went to bed for a few hours before waking up at 4:45 am to see the book get woken up! It was amazing! Again, more music (ALWAYS music at all times in the temple!) and we got rose pedals to shower the book with as it made its way from its resting place into the temple. After this we walked around and found some food and drank some tea (TII). 

Kalsong had mentioned that we should go to the gardens where two thousand Indians were massacred by General Dyer. The gardens are called Jallianwala Bagh. There are walls that still have the bullet holes from the battle. The Indians were unarmed and had no idea the attack was going to happen.

After the gardens we went back to the temple to see it during the day and of course to take some picures. I soaked my feet in the reflecting pool for a while and took a million “snaps” with random Indian people. The temple is so beautiful by day but the way it glimmers at night is truly breathtaking.

As soon as we were done “snapping” the Golden Temple, we left for the weirdest thing ever, the taking down of the flags at the Indian-Paskitan border. The trip there was interesting, we got a ticket because I didn’t have my SEAT BELT on. Who knew indian cars even had seat belts…? When we finally made it there, western people are allowed to go in the VIP line because there is a MAD DASH to the border. People literally take off running to get a good seat. As soon as we ran to the bleachers and got patted down by 3 Indian army women, we got ready for the show. With a lot of cheering and screaming I equated this experience to a USC/UCLA football game. The Indian side was screaming HINDUSTAN and waving HUGE indian flags. Then the guards started marching and stomping and kicking and it was crazy. The flags “have” to be lowered at the same time so that one country does not think they have superiority over the other country. Who knows. We ate popcorn and had a great time. Dinner was at an amazing dhaba with wonderful vegetarian indian food. Sam did an amazing job at picking a really great place to eat. After some late night shopping and a quick cup of tea (TII), we went to bed. The western quarters were really good because we didn’t have to sleep with all the people out in the big room. Thank goodness for my sleeping bag!! We then woke up bright and early to get in jeeps and roll back to campus.

First thing I did when I got back: wash my clothes, air out my stinky sleeping back (from the “free” sleeping area), and wash my hair about five times.