Advertisement
Published: April 29th 2006
Edit Blog Post
Yesterday, Thursday, we arrived in this city of 1.01 million, in the Northern Punjab, 254 miles north west of Delhi, about twenty miles east of the border between India and Pakistan. The reason for taking this all-day, all-night, mid-morning trip from Varanasi, with first class AC all to ourselves, is The Hari Mandir, The Temple of God, popularly known as The Golden Temple of the Sikhs.
The founding Guru of the Sikhs, Nanak, lived in the Amritsar neighbourhood in the fifteen thirties. In a word, or two, Sikhs would say that the nine Gurus who developed their religion, early fourteens to early seventeens, synthetised the Hindu concept of immanence, with the Abrahamic faith in transcendence, in placing a monotheistic God at the core of Sikh beliefs.
The Hari Mandir is the holiest of Sikh places; and includes within its boundaries consecrated replicas of sixty-eight other holy Sikh shrines. The original copy of the Sikh Holy Book is kept here. Priests continuously chant from other copies of the Holy Book, over loudspeaker, all twenty-four hours of the day. Every devout Sikh lives with the desire to visit this divine place at least once.
The Golden Temple is as striking
an edifice as a person will ever lay eyes on. Forty and a half feet square, it stands on a platform 67 feet square, in the middle of the sacred tank, Amrit Sar, and is accessible only by a causeway from the western shore of the tank. Its visible walls are all marble, with their upper halves encased in gold leafed copper sheets, as is every one of the hundred or so inverted lotus flower forms, cornices, columns and cupolas adorning its roof. With approximate diametres of nine feet, for the single central dome, and 2 to 6 feet, for the remainder of the hundred spheres, they are artfully arrayed at varying levels on the roof. This is an electrifying sight in the dazzle of the day time sun. Aglow with ghee lamps, cloning itself in the calm, still reflective tank of water, The Golden Temple is a serene vision, unfolding in time, slowly, under moonlight.
There are no half measures about marble and gold leafing here. All of the walls and floors we could inspect, including the causeway, are marble. Similarly, the inside upper halves of the walls are gold plated, as are all of the railings within
Golden Temple - Amritsar - Feb. 24
One of 4 entrances. A similar building runs along the opposite side of the tank. and without the building, including those making the causeway safe from the water tank. There is some compromise on the doors, one on each side, on each floor, signifying welcome to all creeds; some doors are silver, others are wood, heavily inlaid. The cloths covering the several alters within the building are inlaid with golden designsand semi-precious stones. As a matter of course, the marble plaques, inside and outside the walls, are frescoed with floral designs. The chandelier, in the ground floor prayer room, features a down-turned flute form, carrying one twelve petalled and two eight petalled lotus, the entire ornament in crystal.
The complex, in which the Temple is situated, is a twenty five acre, contiguous compound of: entry and exit archways, clock towers, watch towers, memorial buildings in honour of the fifteen and sixteenth century gurus of Sikhism, the traditional house of the Sikh Parliament, residences where anyone can spend the night, and a huge kitchen and dining room operation, that can provides meals, free of charge, for all who attend the site on any day. This open kitchen, or langar, is in line with a precept of Sikhism by which all are free to share a
Golden Temple - Amritsar - Feb. 24
This building functions as the Sikh parliament. meal, without regard to station in life or any other spurious distinctions. Penelope and I each took a plate, meditated during prayers, and partook of chapatti, lentils and aloo with the multitudes; later, we joined the throngs, for a while, as volunteers on the spoon washing detail.
An average of 50,000 people visit this complex every twenty-four hour day, seven days a week. Its budget is in the order of 300, 000,000 dollars per year; pick your currency. The overriding effect of this multi-dimensional encounter with Sikhism, adherent or not, is of deep inspiration for oneself and soaring aspiration for humankind; we have the potential to walk the same paths and sing from the same pages; we just need wider paths and pages, as a start. Two eight-hour days, will do that to you, if you spend them in such architectural splendour, among four thousand or so people, individually offering obeisance to the divine, in so many gestures; being kindly respectful of each other; and helpfully inviting to strangers in their midst.
We had been posing questions to the Information Office at the site during our first day of visiting. At the start of our second day, a
Golden Temple - Amritsar - Feb. 24
Pilgrim taking water from the tank to pour over herself. representative of the office had us come along on a tour of the site that he was doing for a group of Russian visitors. At the end of the day, he had the manager of the site to present us with a gift, wrapped in gold coloured paper. As I write, it occurs to me I should check; perhaps it is gold leaved. It was a selection of readings on Sikh thought.
Lunch on day two was of stir fried green vegetables, garliced crispy lamb, honeyed crispy lamb and mashed potatoes; when will the variations in Indian cuisine cease?
Tomorrow looks like it could be an interesting, even exciting, day at the border. It is just too close to pass up.
Vernon
Advertisement
Tot: 0.142s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 14; qc: 68; dbt: 0.0855s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb