Christmas at the Golden Temple
Trip Start
Sep 17, 2007
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79
272
Trip End
Oct 08, 2008
Amritsar,
India
Monday, December 24, 2007
Before you reach the temple complex, however, you have to navigate the hellhole of a city outside it. Coming off the train around midnight (no matter when the train leaves, it always seems to arrive at midnight), we grabbed a rickshaw to the Golden Temple (we wanted to spend at least one night in the temple itself). Our rickshaw driver seemed to have other ideas, stopping at a "good", "cheap", hotel "near" the Golden Temple. We didn't want any more of his shennanigans so we told him to kindly take us where we wanted to go
Golden Temple Complex
. So he drove us to the temple and then said you'll need a bed because the temple is closed and won't open until 10 in the morning. We had been told on the train that the complex was open 24 hours (and sure enough it was), so we took a leap of faith and told our scammer thanks and kindly get lost. Liars suck. We were hit again at the gates of the temple, when some guy yelled at us to come over and talk to the police. I started towards the clearly marked police booth but they said no over there. A faker sat in the shadows saying he was a policeman. I had heard about this scam as well and just left. Makes you feel good about a city to get scammed twice in five minutes.In any case, we arrived at the temple dormitories and were given a room with a lock. Lots of signs saying to keep your valuable locked up and not to take food or drink from people. I walked through a large room to get to the awful bathrooms in the back, and came upon masses of people sleeping on the floor. This dormitory is free for everyone, and lots of people take advantage of it. The beds were more than a little dirty, but it was late and we crashed. Or I crashed for a little bit until Erin decided to vomit all over my sandals repeatedly. Why couldn't she avoid them the 2nd or 10th retch? Only Erin knows.
We decided we would grab a hotel the next morning so we moved out to a nearby hotel
The Golden Temple
. Then we went on a ridiculous hunt for a restaurant that was right around the corner. We ended up taking a rickshaw that took us a couple kilometers away from where we wanted to be and then broke, leaving us to walk all the way back and settle for the restaurant right next to our hotel. Oh well. It had sad little Christmas trees on the table.In the evening we made our first visit to the Golden Temple Complex. It was dark and there was a full moon. The whole thing is quite a procedure. You have to take off your shoes and give them to the shoe-building person, then cover your head (I knew that red bandanna would come in handy), then walk through some water to wash your feet. Finally you are inside.
It seems no matter what time of day it is, there is always someone in the temple complex. Usually it is quite a crowd. It was maybe 7 in the evening and we definitely weren't alone. People circle the temple and its pond on the marble walkway. The marble temple (covered in gold sheet), is lit up and shimmers in the middle of the pool. Inside the temple is the Sikh holy book. Four gurus keep up a constant reading of the book during the day over loudspeakers that sound through the entire complex. The combined effect is magical. Erin really liked it here.
The Indians coming here are also tourists as well as pilgrims, and take pictures right alongside us. But many also bathe from the stairs, bow down at doorways and in front of sacred objects, and bring offerings to the temple in the center. It is a different place at different times of the day, but my favorite time is in the evening.
bathing in the pool of nectar
We visited other places during our time here as well. We took a trip out to the border to see the strange border closing ceremony (see next entry) for Christmas eve. We also spent some time in the new city, trying an Amritsari specialty of deep fried fish. They have a lot of sweet shops up here as well, and Erin took full advantage. On the way back we saw a couple people dressed up in Santa suits. They were wearing creepy plastic face masks. A couple people wished us a Happy Christmas.
Perhaps the most interesting experiences at the Golden Temple we reserved for Christmas day. I will attempt to forget the frustrating experience of reserving, then cancelling, a train ticket and some rather unhelpful reservation specialists.
The kitchen at the Golden Temple feeds up to 10,000 pilgrims a day. We join our place in line, grab a metal bowl, plate, and spoon, and are ushered into a dining hall with rows of mats. We take our place on the floor with the masses and wait. Once the space is full (with several hundred people), people emerged from the next room with various buckets. They passed up and down the line with surprising speed. First came guys with buckets of water, pouring them into our bowls to drink. Then a ladler with a bowl of soupy dahl, which he threw on our plates with surprising speed and accuracy. Next chapatis were thrown into our hands. The chapatis are churned out on a chapati-making machine. Finally, for dessert, we got a giant dollop of kheer (rice pudding). The whole meal we surprisingly filling. Afterwards, we handed off our spoons to the spoon-guy and threw our plates into the washing station. The entire crowd was fed in less than 15 minutes
from the back
. The dining hall is operational for 24 hours a day. It is the ultimate soup kitchen.Before we left Amritsar, we joined the constant line to move across the bridge to the Golden Temple. They let in small groups at a time, so we crept closer and closer until the golden walls were right above us. Finally we entered and saw the holy book and the four men who sang all day. Upstairs people could grab little pamphlets and read them for reflection. Everywhere people were bowing before gurus and giving them offerings. The bottom floor was inlaid marble in the style of the Taj and very beautiful.
Every evening the holy book is carried from its place in the temple and brought across the bridge to the building opposite. It is carried in a palanquin by four men while Sikhs crowd around, hoping to touch any part of the procession at all.
The Golden Temple is quite a special place. There are almost no western tourists here, and people are almost in awe of us. We are welcomed with what little English they have, and people ask what we think of their temple. Little kids like to shake our hands before running away. It's kind of like being a rockstar.
All in all, Christmas in Amritsar was quite special indeed.
~Travis
