Visitors come to the Golden Temple to worship throughout the day and even well into the night.

20 spring 2013

GOLDEN
Even for the large and populous country of India, the scale of what happens at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, on a day-to-day basis is nearly overwhelming. But that shouldnt stop you from visiting. This most sacred of Sikh sites is open to anyone, whether they are curious to learn more about the Sikh religion or just want to visit an extraordinary place.

Dawn to Dusk at the

Temple
By Emily Bell
The famous Golden Temple is the central building of a larger complex called Harmandir Sahib. First constructed in the sixteenth century, the complex houses the most famous Sikh temple in the world. Pale walls surround a massive open courtyard dominated by a large pool called Amrit Sarovar (Pool of Nectar). The gilded temple glitters in the center of the lake, accessed by a causeway with a hefty line of people. This temple is primarily run by volunteer Sikhs, whose religion places an emphasis on seva, or selfless service. One of the ways they can live out this principle is by volunteering at a gurdwara (Sikh Temple) such as Harmandir Sahib. Types of seva at the temple include cleaning, organizing, serving meals, and donating the supplies used to make the food. in longbut fast-movinglines to exchange their shoes for tokens at one of the dozens of volunteer desks. Theres no need for visitors to worry about the state of their bare feet. Thanks to the extra care of another set of temple workers, there are small pools of water to walk through right before entering the doors of the complex.

100,000 visitors. 200,000 shoes. 35,000 meals. 4 sacred doors. 1 holy book.

Outside the Walls

Around the temple walls, street vendors stand close by to sell bandanas or scarves, because covering ones head is an important way that visitors to the temple show their respect. Due to the especially sacred nature of the temple, all visitors are also asked not to smoke tobacco, drink alcohol, or eat meat while they are within the complex. The first stop for any visitor entering the temple is the bustling shoe check, where guests are asked to enter the temple barefoot to show their respect for the holiness of the place. This is no mere wall of cubbyholes; the check-in resembles a train station more than anything else. Guests wait

Getting to the Temple

Harmandir Sahib is located in the city of Amritsar, in the Punjab province of India.

Amritsar can be accessed from Delhi via train, taxi, or plane. By car, it takes about seven hours to get to Amritsar; by plane, it takes about one hour. The Amritsar airport is small, and most flights are to and from Delhi. Once in the city, you can reach the temple by taxi or auto-rickshaw.

Photo by Jasleen Kaur

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Inside the Walls

All around the courtyard are the sounds of soft footsteps and louder chatter. Tourists snap pictures and make sketches; worshippers do prostrations or even bathe in the lakes sacred water. But whether one is a tourist or worshipper, this is a place for open conversation. Many visitors are struck by the friendliness of perfect strangers here. Mary Downs, who traveled to the temple with a student group, recounts her delight with this phenomenon. At other places in India, she says, I was a little more guarded about people walking up to me and starting to talk to me. I am distrustful and always question the motives of others. But at the Golden Temple, I felt like everyone was there to be at peace and enjoy being part of something bigger. So I felt like talking to people and was genuinely able to connect with individuals very different than me. Mr. Singh (who shares his name with much of the Sikh population) is a successful Amritsar businessman, but he still enjoys offering free tours of the temples infrastructure to passing strangers in his spare time. I dont need the money, he explains. I do it simply because I like to meet new people. There are many interesting people here. One of Mr. Singhs favorite things to show curious newcomers is the temples massive kitchens.

In the Kitchens
The kitchens of Harmandir Sahib are a sight to behold. Various curries and dahls (legume-based dishes) are cooked in pots nearly as big as the people who stir them. The chapati (a type of Indian flatbread) is made factory-style, baked in discs that are carried by conveyor belt through an oven before getting dumped into large buckets. But unlike most places where food is mass-produced, nothing here will be shipped out to other locationsall of it is for the temples visitors. The whole operation is supervised and monitored by yet another set of dedicated volunteers. The temple is mostly run by volunteers, Mr. Singh says proudly. People try to contribute whenever they can. Once the food is made, it is served with remarkable speed and efficiency, which is paramount, since guests are fed in groups of thousands. Theres no need to wait in a line this time around. Instead, guests sit on mats and are served by quickly moving volunteers who offer them one savory vegetarian dish after another, all served with steaming hot bread. Best of all, its completely free and available to anyone. From beggar to businessman to tourist, all people are welcome to sit down and eat together, emulating Sikh values of equality. I expected the food to be not so great, being made in bulk like that, says visitor Melissa Cowles. But it was delicious!

Meals at the temple often include chapati (a type of flatbread), dahl (a legume-based dish), steaming hot curry, and kheer (a rice pudding).

22 spring 2013

Photo by Deborah Hoffa

At the Shrine
The best time to visit the gilded shrine at the pools center may be in the evening when the temple lights up the whole courtyard and the temples sheen is reflected by the still waters. The line to enter the shrine is worth the wait. Inside, the walls are beautifully decorated with engravings of sacred verses and other ceremonial items of Sikhism, such as candles and mosaics. Every night the Guru Granth Sahib, the most sacred book in Sikhism, is delivered via procession to its resting place, the seat of Sikh parliament. The large book is carried in a velvet-lined palanquin (a covered sedan chair) decorated with flowers. Sikh devotees line up and take turns shouldering the palanquin, forming a human conveyor belt to carefully ensure the books safe journey. Typically this ceremony happens at 11:00 pm in the summer and 9:00 pm during the rest of the year, but visitors should know that the exact time may vary. The temple as a whole is open almost 24 hours, from 6:00 am to 2:00 am. As the evening falls and the book is delivered, the pace of temple life declines. Pilgrims and wanderers alike sit at the waters edge and stare out at the glittering temple. Some visitors even bring mats to sleep on; their desire to stay close to the shrine does not die with the sun. The shrine itself stays lit up all night, a beacon of harmony and sanctity. Mary sums up the peace of night at the temple best. I was able to chat, to relax, to think. I felt so content there.

A Few Sikh Terms

Sikhism:A monotheistic
religion of Indian origin.

Sikh:A practitioner
of Sikhism.

Gurdwara:A place of

worship for Sikhs. All public gurdwaras include a place for the sacred text, a community kitchen, and a daily routine that involves hymn singing and readings from the sacred text.

GuruGranthSahib:

The sacred text of Sikhism. Also known as Ad-Granth, it features hymns that ponder on Gods nature as well as reasons to meditate on his name.

Guru:A term of Indian

leader and teacher. The

origin denoting a spiritual guru who founded Sikhism was Guru Nanak.

Photo by Daniel Atwood

Bathing or wading in the temples water is said to bring blessings.

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