A Visit to the Golden Temple

Last week was a great weekend of visiting different places of worship around Punjab. Since students will see religious diversity in the US, we feel it’s important to get used to it now. Plus with all the different places of worship around here, it helps them open their minds and see things from a different point of view.
On Saturday, we drove up to Amritsar, the holy city of the Sikhs, to visit the Golden Temple. The weather was cool when we started but got hotter throughout the day. Still that didn’t stop us from touring the Golden Temple complex and viewing the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikhs holy book. Being Saturday, there were a lot of visitors to the temple. Actually it is reported that roughly 10,000 people visit the Golden Temple every day.
Prior to heading to Amritsar, I gave them a research assignment while they were in the computer lab to find information about Sikhism and the Golden Temple so they were better prepared for the trip. We discussed the findings of their research and talked to the head of the school here, who is a Sikh. The students were also informed about the protocol for visiting the temple (cover your head, no shoes, don’t touch anyone’s turban or kirpan—a curved sword worn by the more devout Sikhs).
Overall the students were respectful of this place of worship and asked some good questions. People visiting the temple were curious as to who the students were and engaged them in conversation throughout the day. In the temple where the holy book is read everyday/all day throughout the year, a man brought the kids forward to view the book and tell them about it. They listened and asked appropriate questions to better understand this religious book.
The main tenet of Sikhism is that everyone is equal and that is best display in the dining hall at the Golden Temple. No matter who you are, rich, poor, famous or not, everyone sits on the floor, is served the same food and has to beg for bread—a very humbling experience. After viewing the main part of the temple, we went for our langar or meal. The whole temple complex is very well organized with armies of volunteers constantly mopping, cleaning, washing, and doing whatever work needs to be done. In the dining hall, you are given a metal plate by one person, a spoon by another and a bowl by yet another. From there you go either upstairs or to the ground floor to the dining halls. Inside you sit in long rows on the floor with your plate and bowl in front of you. Men come along with big buckets of various things to eat like daal and potatoes and a sweet rice dish. Another man comes by with a giant kettle of fresh water. More men come by with baskets of fresh roti, flat bread, which they only give you if you ask for it with two hands as if begging for bread. Despite the presentation, which put off some of the students (eating on the floor, being served from a bucket), the all-veg lunch was very delicious and healthy. Most of the kids ate their lunch, some turned their noses up at it but we encouraged everyone to try at least something on their plate before leaving, which they did.
After lunch, we made our way out of the temple, did a little souvenir shopping, got our shoes and headed down the street to Jallianwala Bagh—site of the Amritsar Massacre. This walled garden was the site of one of the worst massacres of Indians by the British. In 1919, a peaceful demonstration was going on inside the garden to protest a repressive law enforced by the British. The British military officer in charge in Amritsar, Brigadier-General Dyer, took it upon himself to put an end to this peaceful demonstration by opening fire on the crowd of 5,000. With nowhere to run, people were mowed down by his troops firing directly into the crowd. In the end, over 1,500 people were injured or dead and Indians now had a catalyst for getting rid of the British once and for all, which happened 28 years later. The garden is now a peaceful memorial to those who were killed or injured with a small museum. By this point in the day we were all hot and tired, and enjoyed a little rest in the shade with some breeze before heading home.
You can’t drive right up to the Golden Temple with a bus, so we had to park a few kilometers away and take a tonga, a horse carriage. We all had a ball clip clopping up the streets in our rickety horse and buggies, braving the modern traffic of cars and buses. After a little shopping for snacks, drinks and ice cream, we were on our way back home. Our special guest on the trip was Mr. Naeem from the Kabul office who had escorted the 6 new kids to camp, arriving late Friday night. We dropped him off at the airport in Amritsar for his flight back to Delhi and then on to Kabul. The rest of us zoomed down the highway in our school bus back to our home in the Punjab.