Amritsar and The Temple of Gold

From Amritsar and Dharamsala (McLeod Ganj)

No time for love Dr. Jones, and certainly no time to hang out in another congested city. After researching Amritsar, our vagabond couple decided to once again do a stop over in a major Indian city en route to somewhere else. We thought about skipping it all together but knew from pictures and reading that this sacred Sikh temple was not to be missed.

So after leaving Jaisalmer on a 17 hour train ride bound for Delhi, we took hot showers and immediately turned around for a 10 hour overnight train to Amritsar. Why go back to Dehli? Well for those of you who know the map of India, that is a good question. We had to drop off the spoils from the desert! And I digress.

We arrived in Amritsar at 6 a.m. and headed immediately to the main bus station to arrange travel for our next destination in Himachal Pradesh; more on that in the next post. We stored our bags and by 7:45 were off to our destination, The Golden Temple.



The town was quiet as the sun was just begin to light the sky, but the area around the temple was already busy with many religious pilgrims. Amritsar is also in the Indian state of Punjab, something new for us, and the cultural heart had a different beat. Maybe it was more spiritual or maybe the horns just weren't honking this early in the morning; but the temple itself commanded respect.



We both covered ourselves to make the entrance to the temple and took the first steps of washing our feet in the holy waters surrounding the main edifice. Once inside we were greeted by a rhythmic soul awakening music that oozed through the surrounding speakers. We took some pictures and made a full walk around the temple before venturing inside. Two things to note were the kitchens that surrounded the temple as well as the gurdwaras. The Sikh faith believes in equality and charity and this is most evident with these two things. With only a small donation (or none at all), they will feed and board their pilgrims should they choose to stay in the gurdwaras.

From Amritsar and Dharamsala (McLeod Ganj)

Unfortunately with most holy places, pictures are not allowed inside the temples, so there are no pics. The last thing to say is that the music we heard the whole time, came from within the temple itself. There were throngs of people inside on all 3 floors of the marble and gold structure. On the main level they were surrounding the holy men and 3 musicians who must have continued their chants for hours on end. We left after only two for our bus to the mountain town of Dharamsala in the state of Himachal Pradedsh. Dalai Lama anyone?