Amritsar feels like a whole other kingdom. A whole new world within the world that is India.
I dined on delicious kulcha for my lunch, with huge lumps of salty makun atop it and served on a shining gold plate with a cup of lassi on the side. The only annoying thing was the bizzarre waiter who kept coming up to me and asking me what I else wanted while I still had my mouth full.
I explored the garden of Jallianwala Bagh which was incredibly peaceful. Quite unlike the events which took place there on the 13th April 1919. The stone monument within the garden stands in remembrance of the peaceful protestors gunned down by the British Indian army. The protests had been held in response to a number of pro-independence activists being arrested by the British.
I tried to speak a bit of Punjabi to some guys by the monument. I thought I was doing alright until they said ‘nice Hindi’. I guess they were just trying to be nice, because I definitely wasn’t speaking Hindi, and clearly I wasn’t speaking Punjabi either.
For dinner I supped in a courtyard restaurant on something called Rajma Chawal. The Indian answer to Chilli con carne. Extremely tasty. Like chilli con carne but less meaty and somehow a whole lot tastier.
I could not get Kalyan to accompany me to the Golden Temple. He wouldn’t say why, but was vehement that he could not go. So I went alone. Tying a piece of orange cloth around my hair before I entered. Once I passed through the white marble gates the place was teeming with people. It was the most glorious place I’d seen in all India. People were removing their clothes to go and bathe and pray in the sacred waters which surrounded the Golden Temple. Guards armed with spears patrolled the walkways. Flashy towers with bell-shaped heads stood over the vicinity adding to the spectacle. The Golden Temple a jewel in the middle of the sacred waters.
I queued for hours to get into the Golden Temple – also known as Sri Harmandir Sahib. The queue was so long and so packed with people, that attendants had to come along and hand out bowls of water into the crowd. I had a bottle of water with me, but everyone was so tightly packed together I could not even reach for it. People passed the metal bowls over their heads to those in the thick of the crowd, water slopping over the sides as they went. People drank from the bowls and passed them back.
Inside Sri Harmandir Sahib the walls, floors and ceilings were all made of gold. There were sacred rooms where you could watch Sikh priests reading from an enormous book. The Sikh holy text that must always be read from, night and day.
Within the temple I met a guy called Sunam who worked there as an attendant. Told me I could call him Sam if it was easier. He told me a bit about the temple and its turbulent history.
The Golden Temple is the holiest site in all of Sikhism. In the summer of 1984, a group of Sikh Separatists took refuge in the Golden Temple in order to evade arrest. The Sikh Separatist movement had begun some time ago in Punjab – some saw it as a movement advocating greater human rights for Sikhs in India. However, the movement was highly controversial due to its aim of creating a sovereign state within India’s borders, known as Khalistan. Understandably, the Indian government wasn’t keen on the idea. On 1st June 1984, after negotiations between the Sikh Separatists and the Indian government broke down, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (India’s first female Prime Minister) ordered the Army to open fire on the temple. The army not only opened fire on The Golden Temple but on scores of other Sikh Temples across Punjab.
But the Sikh Separatists who were taking refuge inside were not hiding unarmed, and they fired back with Chinese-made Grenade launchers among other heavy weaponry. The fighting went on for 5 days until the Separatists ran out of ammunition, by which point the army had already resorted to using tanks and helicopters.
Sikhs throughout the country and worldwide saw the attack on the Golden Temple as an attack on Sikhism itself and on the 31st October of the same year, Indira Gandhi was shot dead by two of her bodyguards – both of whom were Sikh. The first of her bodyguards was killed on the scene, while the second was captured and hanged in 1989.
In the 4 days following the assassination, a series of anti-Sikh riots kicked off across India in which approximately 2800 Sikhs were killed in the capital alone, and 3350 nationwide.
Sunam told me the reason they carry swords is so they can kill anyone who disrespects their holy book. He told me how they had killed a woman who touched and disrespected the same book several years ago. I looked for any sign that he was joking and could find none. I later googled the killing he described but could find nothing about any tourist being stabbed to death in the temple. The only story I found was about a Hindu man who was beaten to death by onlookers after jumping into one of the sacred rooms.
I went to the very top of the temple and sat down on one of the many mats. There were many attendants – volunteers who were beginning to clean the temple now that it was soon to be closing. I continued talking to Sunam as all around me huge carpets were lifted into the air and beaten with broomsticks. I asked Sunam about it and he told me I could have a go if I wanted. And so I ended up with a broomstick in my hand at the top of the Golden Temple, encircled by a group of cloaked Sikhs whacking the broomstick against this intricate patterned carpet. One of these attendants seemed pretty crazy. They were all pretty riled up. He started barking about cows in his hometown. He was more than a little crazy.
I was one of the last to leave the Golden Temple, walking back along the bridge across the sacred waters. Sunam met me several minutes later on the other side and gave me some Sikh holy communion. I had tasted it before in Gwalior with Kakul, but it was nice to get it again, a strange lightly sweetened cinnamon ball of crumbly cake. I looked at people getting into the sacred waters. The waters here hold healing powers apparently. I wanted to get in too but I had no towel or swimming trunks.
Sunam started talking to me again. Telling me how it was their job to keep tourists from filming this place for their Instagram stories or taking selfies with it. I started to feel bad about the selfies I had been taking of myself prior to entering the temple, and was glad Sunam hadn’t seen me.
All of a sudden Sunam was gone and I was alone again with my thoughts and the dazzling beauty of the place around me. It was time to leave the district of the Golden Temple, yet looking around me at the crowds of people sleeping upon the floor… I mean, it was warm enough… I realised suddenly that I could sleep here like them. A bit risky with my bag of valuables perhaps, but it was certainly doable. I wish I had stayed and slept in the light of the Golden Temple.
