Amritsar - Sikhs, Soldiers, and Quality Hospitality

In Amritsar I found the beautiful Sikh Golden Temple. Set in the middle of water and surrounded by pretty white outer buildings, it made a very relaxing circuit to walk around. I only stayed here a couple of days, but I happily walked the circuit on about four or five occasions. With my head covered and my shoes left outside I did the mandatory walk through the water to clean my feet before entering the complex. Then along with lots of others I turned left and made my way right around the edge of the water on the smooth marble tiles.

 

There were all sorts of interesting weapons, mostly in the form of axes and spears, being carried around by Sikhs. Yet despite this everyone was really friendly. I stayed in a little dorm free of charge at the back of the temple and ate my meals, also completely for free, in the temple kitchens. Here, thousands of people came and sat on the floor together to eat the delicious food on offer at any time day or night. Volunteers came around with huge buckets/trays of food and water, which they dished out onto the big silver plate you were given on your way in. Sometimes there was even rice pudding. It really was a very special place!

 Amritsar is very near the India/Pakistan boarder and each evening there is a boarder closing ceremony. I went along and watched the incredibly enthusiastic marching and high kicks done by the Indian army. It was hard to see the Pakistan army as they were the other side of the gate, but I'm pretty sure they were doing the same thing. From both sides there was singing and cheers and shouts from the crowd. Each side trying to outdo the other in terms of volume. The Indian side did have rather an unfair advantage though, what with there being about 50 times the amount of people attending the ceremony there. Here I saw another example of how lots of Indian people seem to have a wonderful ability to really let go and enjoy themselves. When the soldiers weren't on the road, loud music was played and everyone, especially the ladies, was up singing and dancing.

At night time when all lit up and reflecting in the water, the temple was possibly even more beautiful than during the day. Every time I went there, a huge line of people waited for their turn to be able to enter the golden temple. As foreign tourists, for some reason we were aloud to enter through the exit path and so avoid the que. This meant we couldn't go through the front entrance of the temple but could still go inside and climb up the stairs to be able to overlook everything that was going on. It also meant that on the way out, along with everyone else, we were given yet more free food. This time it was in the form of some tasty dryish sweet thing.

Before I left Amritsar I visited a little museum at the temple which showed the horrible history of the Sikh's clashes with the Mughals. This was mostly all shown in particularly gruesome and graphic drawings.

I also visited Jallianwala Bagh - the now Garden where before India's independence British soldiers shot at and killed thousands of unarmed peaceful protesters. The garden was surrounded by high walls which prevented the protesters from escaping. The only place to hide being a deep well in which many people jumped and died whilst trying to avoid the bullets. The well was still there as were the many bullet holes in the walls all around the garden where people had been shot at as they attempted to escape. It was so sad to see and through absolutely no doing of any of the other visitors, I have to say I did feel quite uncomfortable being British and being there