3rd Nov SUN: Golden Temple

The Harmandir Sahi is known as the Golden Temple  and is a Gurdwara (place of assembly and worship for Sikhs) surrounded by a man-made lake.    Originally built in the 1570s it has been destroyed several times by the Muslim armies from Afghanistan and the Mughal Empire and rebuilt by the Sikhs each time.

Structurally, the temple is located below ground level as it signifies that one must be humble and go down to reach the temple of God which is different to Hindu temples most of which are built at an elevated level.   Its a blend of Hindu and Islamic styles.  

The lower level is marble decorated with flower and animal motifs as on the Taj Mahal. The second level has intricately engraved gold panels, topped by a dome gilded with 750kgs of gold.  Internally lots of doors and panels are made from copper decorated with gold leaf but we didn't go inside to see this (too many people queuing).

On the top floor of the clock tower entrance, the Sikh history museum is located. 

There are entrances on four different sides of the complex which apparently symbolizes openness and acceptance, but only one entrance to the temple.

As we walked to the temple it unexpectedly rained for a few minutes which made walking barefoot on the marble tiles very treacherous.   In addition, you have to walk through shallow water baths to clean the feet before entering the temple grounds and although there are makeshift walkways made from rubber/plastic matting its hard to walk on these due to the sheer numbers of people trying to do the same thing.  Bit of a skating rink till the tiles dried off.

It remained hazy so my hopes of photographing the temple against a brilliant blue sky were thwarted but its still a very beautiful building 

Our first view as we entered through one of the four gates:

One of the 'official' guys

Two musicians from a group who were entertaining the crowds

Some of the enormous fishes in the lake

Every Gurdwara has a Langar (kitchen) and the one at Amritsar is the largest in the world providing vegetarian meals free of charge for 50,000 to 100,000 people per day.   They can cater for about 300 at each sitting and diners have to be in and out within 15 minutes to make way for the next sitting.

The Golden Temple is open, and serves langar, 24 hours a day.

Anybody can eat here - you just take your place in the queue to get your tray and spoon.   We chose not to eat here as we still haven't mastered the art of eating Indian food with our fingers and quite honestly I don't think either of us could sit crosslegged on the floor these days!

We went 'backstage' into the kitchens to see where the food is prepared.   Every diner gets some dhall, a flatbread and a rice based dessert.

It was very hot and very busy in the kitchen area so we kept out of the way as much as possible

but I was invited to have a stir … I couldn't do what the volunteers do and keep at it for any length of time, the heat got to me!

Feeding the hordes

and look who almost made it cross legged on the floor!

As well as food production, there's an enormous washing up production line.    I'd read that each tray is washed 5 times during the process but only counted 3 washes …. maybe I missed something.   It was an amazing, and very efficient, operation with scores of volunteers at the washing 'sinks' and others sitting on benches along the walls waiting to take their turn. 

Because the weather was hazy during the day we returned to the temple this evening to photograph it lit up.   It was as busy as ever because lots of devotees were there to witness a nightly ceremony when the 'holy book' is carried from its day place to its night-time place with lots of prayers and chanting.   The queues to witness this were horrendous so we just took our photos and then headed back to the little eating place we'd found last night - very basic but wonderful veggie curries - and they send out for beer for us!

The temple looks beautiful at night - I'd expected additional 'fairy' lights as we'd seen strings of these around the buildings but apparently these are for special ceremonial occasions (as in Devali last week).