Morning prayers at the Golden Temple

Reading from the holy scriptures of the Gurus.

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2003-08-23 - Amritsar - Ludhiana (Day 130)

At 5am, I roll out of bed to walk over to the Golden Temple to try to catch the sunrise off the building. I had already figured out where I wanted to be so I walked on the long burlap mats cover the marble and help stop the slipping caused by feet wet from bathing to the far East corner of the pool surrounding the temple. The temple is open 24hours a day and there were quite a number of people who were there even just after 5am and by 6am the temple was relatively crowded and people were beginning to cue for entrance into the temple itself. The holy books from the Gurus are brought out each morning at 4:30am in a procession, which is supposed to be impressive, but I just didn't have the stamina for that after the long ride so you will miss out on any pictures. As it was, sunrise was later then I expected with the sun coming up only after 6:30am so I had been sitting on the marble for more then an hour and it was tough on the legs.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this trip many Sikhs made an impression on me from Lalli Singh who sold me the bike to many businessmen I met on the way and drivers I found on the road who for some reason are disproportionately Sikhs. On one guess, I estimated that 50% of the Tata and oil truck drivers I've seen have been Sikhs, which only make up about 4-5% of the population. The visit to the Golden Temple only reinforced this respect for the religion/philosophy of the Sikh people with the people inside the temple being very friendly even the guards that were stationed around the temple were extraordinarily polite.

I watched many people, mostly men, come out for morning absolutions which generally involved stripping down to the short-underpants which are one of the 5 identifying items of a Sikh, and putting the knife, another item into his turban, yet another) and climbing down into the water. Inside the water near the edge are chains with rings on the end the devote will pick up and hold in their hands as they make their prayers facing the temple with the ring near the bracelet, usually plain steel which is worn on the right hand to remind the Sikh of their position to god and society.

After the sun had come up, I packed up the camera gear and walked around the temple on the walkway which holds engraved pieces of marble noticing donations from the faithful and which occupy most available space. I was surprised by many of the donations for example a 5,000-rupee donation made about 10 years ago by an army captain, which was prominently displayed. The amount is about US$ 200, which from the ornateness of the plaque describing the donation, I suspect that the plaque cost at least half of that amount. The aspect of showiness in the temple and the "Look how devout I am" feeling of the walls was a little depressing.

The queue to get into the main temple building was already quite long by the time I packed up the gear and I was waiting in line for a half an hour with people used to living in a country of a billion people - meaning they were crushed literally into my armpits with no idea of the "personal space" concept that American's have grown up with. Being in Asia for 15 years I'm used to a smaller personal space idea but while in line for the temple I don't think there was a moment when I wasn't being touched by at least two people around me and usually it was all sides. With the heat already up we were all sweating even though it wasn't even 8am yet and again I was finding reason to dislike the Indian plains, at least in summer.

Inside the temple, there were three floors, all with holy men reading from the book of the last Guru that is regarded as the holy book to the Sikh religion. The reading is in a singsong chant and the devout would site around the reader who was usually flanked by two other holy men, one with a feather duster waved over the book every few seconds - I assume to ceremonially keep the flies and dust away and another who appeared to be a "guard".

After a visit to all floors of the temple and the roof I set back out on the road deciding not to stay in Armitsar as had originally been the plan as there didn't seem to be anything else worth seeing in the city and the heat and pollution were just too stifling and I want to be back up in the hills as quickly as possible. Driving all day I made it to some hotel in Ludhiana, the middle of nowhere, and that was the end of the great trip to Armitsar, which I had high hopes for but reality didn't equal.

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