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Published: October 6th 2022
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Golden Temple
The Golden Temple in Amritsar is a holy site for the Sikhs. From a temple covered with gold to a temple covered with rats
After having spent the first days in Delhi and Agra we felt that we wanted to travel to some of the other places we had on our agenda for this trip. First we went to the city Amritsar.
Amritsar Amritsar is in Punjab in the northwest of India, not far from the border of Pakistan.
Golden Temple, Amritsar On this trip we wanted to see some of the more spectacular sites in India. The
Golden Temple in Amritsar easily qualifies as a spectacular site. The Golden Temple is a holy site for the Sikhs. The central part of the temple is a building covered with gold leaf, hence the name of the temple. The Golden Temple is far more than just its grand gilded centre piece. The gold covered temple sits in a large pool which in turn is surrounded by various buildings that mainly are white. The white buildings, the golden temple and the large pool together form a very spectacular place.
Amritsar Massacre Amritsar has seen its fair share of dark history too.
A buildings surrounding Golden Temple
The gold covered temple is surrounded by various buildings that mainly are white. We visited
Jallianwala Bagh, a park which today essentially is a memorial over the
Amritsar Massacre. In 1919 a peaceful demonstration in the park was turned into a bloodbath when British troops started shooting at the demonstrators. The official death toll is unknown. But several hundreds, or maybe even more than a thousand, people were killed.
McLeod Ganj/Dharamshala Next place we went to was
Dharamshala and the nearby
McLeod Ganj. These towns are in the Himachal Pradesh State in the foothills of the Himalayas. The towns are a few kilometres from each other. Actually, they are so close to each other that we could walk between them.
McLeod Ganj is famous for being the home of Dalai Lama and where the Tibetan government-in-exile has its headquarter.
For us it was a relief to visit Dharamshala. The high altitude meant that the temperature was much lower there than in Delhi, Agra and Amritsar. The previous days the Indian summer heat had made us suffer a bit. The cool air of Dharamshala really was a bliss.
When we were in Dharamshala we went on a hike. The day we hiked the weather
Emma and a Sikh
At Golden Temple we met this Sikh. He told us about his religion and what he gets out from visiting the site was actually a bit chilly and it even rained a bit. We hiked a trail that went up to a high altitude grazing area for the local cattle. But when we reached the fields we couldn't see much because it was then quite foggy. It didn't rain much though. At lower altitudes it probably rained more. At least that is what we think because when we came down, two trees had fallen down. One tree had fallen across the trail we walked on a few hours earlier and one had fallen in central Dharamshala.
We have to mention a stray dog we met this day. We met her in central Dharamshala right in the beginning of the hike. When she started to follow us we thought that she just wanted us to give her food. We decided to ignore her hoping that she would give up. But she didn't give up. She happily trotted along with us for several hours. When we reached the far end of the trail we thought that she had deserved some food for her effort. But when she was offered some biscuits, the only food we had, she turned them down and
Jallianwala Bagh
Jallianwala Bagh is a park which today essentially is a memorial over the Amritsar Massacre. started to eat some grass instead. When we walked down towards Dharamshala again she followed us down. It seems like she just fancied us and wanted some company. She looked really sad when she tried to follow us into the guesthouse where we stayedand we closed the door and didn't let her in.
Jama Masjid, Delhi When we left Amritsar our plan was to go to Rajasthan. But we couldn't find any direct trains to our destination so we had to go via Delhi. We had some time to do some sightseeing between the trains so we went to
Jama Masjid, one of the largest mosques in India. It was built in the 17th century by the Mughal ruler, Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan was also mentioned in the
previous blog entry. It was he who had Taj Mahal built in Agra.
Karni Mata Temple, Deshnoke The reason we were headed to Rajasthan was that we wanted to visit
Karni Mata Temple in Deshnoke. We don't remember where we heard of this temple the first time. All we remember is that when we heard of it we decided that we absolutely had to visit it. What makes
Wall with bullet holes
In 1919 a peaceful demonstration in the park was turned into a bloodbath when British troops started shooting at the demonstrators. As a reminder of this massacre the bullet holes in this wall was left as they are this temple special is that thousands of rats live in it, rats that are considered holy.
When visiting the temple you must remove your shoes. You can either walk barefoot or in socks. We decided to have socks on our feet. The floors of the temple are covered with rat poo so we didn't want to use our own socks. Instead we bought a pair, used them during the visit and threw them away afterwards. It is so filthy in the temple that it was out of the question that we were going to wash them and use them again.
Here we end the second of the three blog entries we have planned to make from this trip.
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Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Fascinating
Intrigues me how easily you seem to be able to travel from place to place. What a great adventure you had. Love the pics and the information. First time I've seen a pic of the Dalai Lama's residence too!