Golden Temple in Amritsar - India Trip

When I did my research for our India trip, I saw people say it is hard to get to Amritsar to see the Golden Temple, which is not true, since there is daily flight between New Delhi and Amritsar, 1 hour each way, very convenient. The Golden Temple, also known as Sri Harmandir Sahib (Temple of God), is the most important pilgrimage site of Sikhism. The Golden Temple receives more than three million visitors every month and is of the world's holiest shrines.

Amritsar is a city in the northwestern Indian state of Punjab, 28 kilometers from the border with Pakistan. At the center of its walled old town, the gilded Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib) is the holiest gurdwara (religious complex) of the Sikh religion. It’s at the end of a causeway, surrounded by the sacred Amrit Sarovar tank (lake), where pilgrims bathe. When I first saw the golden temple’s picture, I was amazed by how stunning it is, and the illusion that it can “float” inside a lake. The golden temple is the 2nd most wanted place for me in India. Taj Mahal is at the first place.

The Golden Temple in Amritsar was founded in the sixteenth century by Guru Ram Das Sahib, the fourth Sikh Guru. Maharaja Ranjit Singh was the one who covered it in 162 kg of gold in 1830, two centuries after its construction. From 1995 to 1999, it was renovated with 500 kg of Gold. All its coats of gold were done by the hands of skilled artistes from different parts of the country. It’s all made of 24-karat gold, which is much purer than the 22-karat gold present in Indian households today. Maharaja Ranjit Singh used just 7-9 layers of gold in plating the Golden Temple; during the 4-year long renovation, 24 layers were used. The gold will not wear off for at least 400 years, the Golden Temple’s glory will reach almost the 25th century. No wonder Harmandir Sahib aka the Golden Temple looks as glorious at night as it does during the day.

The night before we flew to Amristsar, it rained in New Delhi, and also in Amristsar. When we arrived in Amristsar the next morning, it was very foggy. I asked our driver if it was pollution or it was just foggy since it rained? Our driver didn’t answer me, maybe he didn’t hear me, or didn’t understand my English, or he didn’t want to say it maybe pollution? When I shook my hand with our driver at the Amristsar airport when we first met, he gave me 4 fingers, and slightly touched my hand then retrieved his hand, which made me feel like I was the man and he was the woman in our handshake. After came back to Canada, I mentioned the weird handshake to my Indian colleagues, and they said it is their polite way to shake a woman’s hand. Btw: the above 3 pictures are from the Internet, the one below is from my mom’s camera. Obviously, the color of the picture has been adjusted by me to make it look better.

The reality was like this:

We dropped our luggage in the hotel, then our driver led us to the Golden temple. It was about 10 minutes walk, not too dangerous since motorcycles were not allowed. On arrival at the Golden Temple, both men and women are required to wear a scarf over their head (don’t worry if you forget to bring a scarf as headscarves are free to use, you can pick one from a big basket outside the entrance). All visitors must remove their shoes and wash their feet by walking through pools before entering the temple. The floor was really cold, but the pool to wash your feet contains warm water. There’s no need to worry about your shoes getting stolen as there is a cloakroom in the Golden Temple specifically for shoes. If you’re in a group, all shoes are placed in one sack and checked in together. Amritsar is a very safe and friendly place. Another thing to remember when visiting Golden temple is shoulders must be covered although bare arms are fine. Shorts should also not be worn. The sign in the lake (picture below) says please do not feed the goldfish in the pool.

Despite India's wealth of cultures and religions which differ by region, everyone is welcome at the Golden Temple, regardless of faith. The temple is open from all four cardinal directions so that people can enter from any side, symbolizing the openness of the Sikhs towards all types of people. You don’t have to queue to get into the Golden Temple. The only place where you will have to queue is to get into the inner temple where the holy book is kept. Queue times can differ greatly depending on the time of day but allow for anything between 30 minutes – 1.5 hours. There are 2 queues, left queue is for Pilgrims and right queue is for visitors. We lined up in the visitor line, which moved a bit faster. We only queued for about 20 minutes before got inside the Golden Temple.

It’s fine to take photos inside the complex, but not in the inner temple where the Sikhism holy book is (what Pilgrims line up for). The inner temple picture below is from the Internet. The holy book contains the Sikhism scriptures and is the 10th prophet for the Sikhs; the previous nine prophets were all people. The words of the holy book are chanted by three men throughout the day and played over loudspeakers. There are also two large screens within the Golden Temple, both of which have subtitles of the words being chanted in various languages, including English. When the Pilgrims enter the inner temple, they press their palms together, knee down, then throw money inside gold fence, where the 3 white cloths man with blue scarf are located. Some of Pilgrims sits at the corner of the hallway and not leaving, just listen to the chanting for the whole day. Inside the Golden Temple you will feel how powerful religion can be! There are multiple floors inside the temple, and you will be led to where the holy water is located. Pilgrims will bottle the water and take home. You can put the water to your forehead 3 times to get blessed. I actually did that, and Water looked at me like: “Are you crazy? Are you try to get yourself sick?” Fortunately, I didn’t get sick at all during the India trip, I must be blessed, haha. J

The visit for Golden Temple is obsoletely free, no charge for camera/cellphone neither, and they even supply you with free meal. The immense logistical achievement of supplying meals to tens of thousands of visitors daily is one of the things that makes the Golden Temple unique. Meals are available in the Golden Temple 24 hours a day – anybody is welcome to eat there and there is no charge for doing so, although donations are accepted; the whole process is funded by donations alone.

Meal times are 12 – 2pm and 7 – 9pm; food is served in two halls in 15 minute sessions per group. On arrival at the Golden Temple, everybody is given a metal tray, cup, spoon and fork by a volunteer and sits on mats on the floor in either of the halls. The food is then served from large containers.  The food served in the Golden Temple is seen as coming from God’s kitchen and therefore blessed and good to eat. The food is for rich and poor alike; all guests sit side by side on the floor, regardless of status. Everyone needs to finish the food in your tray, so please make sure you only accept what you can eat. My mom had a hard time to finish her food since she was sick.

All food served in the Golden Temple is prepared by volunteers. Anybody can volunteer to help out; you don’t have to be a Sikh to do so. There is no hierarchy in the kitchen, but jobs are always available for everyone. It's an incredibly organized process, especially when you consider the kitchen serves 100,000 people on average each day. To have food in the Golden Temple, and see how they prepare and distribute the food is a very unique experience that you should not miss out. The picture below is place they clean the trays, to see how organized the whole process is just unbelievably amazing. As what Water said, Amritsar is true communism.

After we had lunch at the Golden Temple, our driver let us out the complex and walked us to Jallianwala Bagh, the garden where Sikhs were massacred by the British in 1919. I didn’t ask the travel agency to arrange the visit Jallianwala Bagh, because I didn’t want to visit a place where so many people got killed… However, I guess our driver as a Sikh he may really want us to have a look of this place…

We planned to visit the Golden Temple again during night, but it was too cold to walk barefoot again at night, so we canceled the plan. There are 2 things you can do during night inside the Golden Temple, free dinner servers from 7pm to 9pm, and around 9:30pm each day, you can witness the ceremony of putting the Sikhism holy book to bed. Starting at the land end of the causeway, four men carry a palanquin, whilst chanting and saying prayers. On arrival at the Golden Temple, the book is collected, carried back and put to bed. It has often been said that there is a religious fervor in the air when waiting by the pool of nectar for the procession to take place. Once the ceremony starts, visitors also comment on the magnetism of the book drawing you in as it passes. Picture below is from the Internet.