It appears to float on a large rectangular lake. The temple’s golden superstructure glows in the dusky night sky seeming to float on a foundation of white marble in the twilight. The central dome is bracketed by four smaller domes at each corner. In between the corner domes, even smaller domes line the parapet wall of the upper reaches of the temple. The metalwork is ornately decorated in swirling designs and capped with 2000 pounds of gold leaf. Two tall minarets to the south of the lake were built to provide lookouts for any potential attackers.
The lake is bordered by broad marble walkways that extend to multi-storied white marble buildings. A marble causeway crosses the lake to the temple to provide access for hundreds of worshipers.
Thousands of people circle the lake on the white marble paving. Many women are dressed in traditional saris along with men in traditional dress wearing multi colored turbans. Over the loudspeakers the rhythmic chanting of Sikh priests reading the holy book is accompanied by tablas and stringed instruments.
We walk around the perimeter of the lake and find a place to sit along with thousands of pilgrims. As we sit, the sky slowly darkens and flood lights play on the golden structure.
The evening is warm and a light breeze ruffles the surface of the water. We are at peace far removed from the traffic and hustle of the city. The chanting of the priest changes tempo and the crowd rises to its feet. There is some sort of litany which the crowd responds to taking turns with the chanting priest. The exchange ends when the Sikhs all bow with foreheads to the ground.
We are tired from a night and day on the train from Bikaner to Amritsar so we decide to call it a night. Exhausted from our hot and rapid tour through Rajasthan we oversleep and do not hit the street until 9AM the next morning. Deb and I walk over to a car park behind the temple to inquire about cars to Waga to see the border closing ceremony. As has become the norm in a back alley, we bump into Tom again. He is on his way to the Jallianwaga Bagh memorial garden which is a memorial to the nearly 2000 Indians shot in a massacre by British soldiers.
The Indians who were peacefully demonstrating against the policies of the British were shot without provocation or warning. This occurred in 1919 during the Indian struggle for sovereignty. After visiting the memorial, we walk back over to the Golden Temple to visit the inside of the temple. Deb and I line up on the causeway with hundreds of pilgrims. It is a mosh pit of the Sikh faithful pushing their way towards the temple. Many carry offerings of sugared ghee that gives off a strong odor magnified by the hot day. The chanting priests are accompanied by many of the crowd chanting and reading prayers. The line moves in in sporadic bursts and within a half hour we are inside the temple. Priests sit on each of the three levels temple chanting or reading prayers. Some of the crowd stops and sits, others move through quickly. We wander around and sit on the upper level. The room is lavishly carpeted and ornately painted with swirling designs of flowers on the walls and a canopy of stars on the ceiling. The combinations of sights, sounds and smells seems designed to draw the visitor into a calm and serene meditative state. I close my eyes and am transported along with the rest of the crowd into a collective consciousness of serenity and peace.
That afternoon we find a share cab, for Deb, Tom, Justin and I, to go to the nearby India-Pakistan border to witness what is one of the more bizarre rituals I have ever seen; the daily closing ceremony of border between the two countries. It is a combination of nationalistic fervor, theater and part Monte Python skit. I have provided a link below which captures the essence of the ceremony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9y2qtaopbE
It is all the more bizarre when one considers the very rocky relationship between the two countries. One might think with the level of cooperation embodied in this ceremony on a daily basis that the two countries could settle their disputes. Yes, it is a crazy world!
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