Amritsar derives its name from Amrit Sarovar, the holy tank that surrounds the fabulous Golden Temple. Located in the heart of the city, the temple complex is surrounded by a maze of narrow lanes, or katras, that house one of the busiest markets in India. But the Golden Temple is a serene presence, radiating a calm that makes people bow their heads in reverence. The gurudwara, as Sikh temples are called, is the holiest of Sikh shrines. It is not just Sikhs who travel to the Golden Temple to pay homage; Hindus and people of other faiths make the pilgrimage to offer prayers at Harmandir Sahib.
Another major attraction is the Indo-Pakistan border crossing at Wagah, just a short distance from Amritsar, with its elaborate change-of-guards ceremony. And David was particularly interested in the 1919 Amritsar Massacre by Brigadier Dyer
Evening Golden Temple Experience is the fascinating Palki Sahib ceremony at the Golden Temple. The Sikh Holy Book (Granth Sahib) is removed from the main shrine to the sanctum where it ‘rests” until the following morning. Witness hundreds of devotees as they take turns to shoulder the weight of the heavy palanquin on which the Holy Book is moved and appreciate the heavenly chanting; blowing of trumpets and beating of drums.
Thurs 29th of October 29 Dharamasala to Amritsar
Another so so breakfast and we left by about 8.45 the guide appearing and then disappearing.
Another journey passing all the parked cars that collected on either side of so many roads here in northern India. The first two hours were fairly interesting through the foothills, but then we were down onto the plain which was less interesting. Here highway number one was being constructed in short spurts so we had short intervals of fast motoring on completed bits and then long intervals of bumping over tracks on diversions. Cows as usual were often on the road. We stopped after 2 1/2 hours at a rather splendid wedding venue for a short break. Then onto Amritsar which we reached by soon after 1:30 pm.
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The Taj Hotel here was on the cheaper side of Taj hotels and although the room was perfectly adequate, the view was not wondrous and there were no little extras in the room at all. David had problems trying to get the hotel services on the phone as there were no written ones in the room, nor any on the television. Reception seemed unfazed by the fact that all he got was adverts. We had been met by a guide who was a bit serious about what time the temple ceremony started in the evening, the driver having told us we will be back at the hotel by 21.30, the guide seems to suggest that the ceremony did not start till 10 pm. We asked at reception and the answer was sometime between 9 and 10 pm.
We went down to the swimming pool where they wanted us to sign a waiver in the case of death! That was a group of six youths playing ball in the pool for a long time, but eventually they got out and I was able to have a very pleasant five lengths, quite long then back to the room for a read and a siesta before going down about 18.30 for a snack and a cocktail. We had wanted this outside the restaurant but they would not allow food there, so we sat in the bar and had a chicken satay and two cocktails, then back to the room and out again at 20.00 with another guide.
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We arrived in the centre of old Amritsar which was very pleasantly laid out and walked through the shops in a pedestrian complex until we got to the Golden Temple: this was magical round a really large rectangle pool. We had to take off both shoes and socks and we walked to an area where the holy book was being put to bed for the night: this lasted a quarter of an hour at least and everybody was meant to sit cross leg on the floor, but I stood as I could not manage that.
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We then proceeded to the larger sanctuary where there were crowds and crowds waiting to enter it. We stood opposite them and waited for a carriage to be decorated with flowers and then carried it into the temple where the holy book was put on it. This book will be got up at 4 am tomorrow morning and the cycle repeated every day of the year. A really worthwhile insight into the sikh religion. But it was quite tiring for me. We were back at the hotel around 23.00.
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Friday October 31 Amritsar
A good final day to our Indian holiday. I had a swim before breakfast and then a fairly pleasant breakfast but the staff were not up to scratch. We left at 10 am with a new guide and were driven to the old city where we parked in the same car park as a previous day. From here we went to the site of the 1919 massacre where General Dyer had murdered 370 or more Indians, all unarmed , because he had posted a riot act proclamation which prohibited the gathering of more than four people in one place. David was really interested in this and made our guy think hard about some of the statements he was making. More research will be done when we get back to Spain.
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, took place on 13 April 1919. A large crowd had gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, during the annual Baisakhi fair to protest against the Rowlatt Act and the arrest of pro-Indian independence activists. In response to the public gathering, Brigadier-General Reginald Dyer (he was a temporary Brigadier, and in fact retired as a Colonel, his substantive rank) surrounded the people with 90 Ghurka and Sikh infantrymen of the Indian Army, 40 Ghurkas of whom were only armed with knives. The Jallianwala Bagh could only be exited on one side, as its other three sides were enclosed by buildings. After blocking the exit with his troops, Dyer ordered them to shoot at the crowd, continuing to fire even as the protestors tried to flee. The troops kept on firing until their ammunition was low and they were ordered to stop. At this point 1650 rounds had been fired, an average of 33 rounds per rifle. Estimates of those killed vary from 379 to 1,500 or more people; over 1,200 others were injured, of whom 192 sustained serious injury. Clearly not all were shot, many will have died in crushes, and from jumping into the well. The British figure of 379 is certainly wrong, and it seems probable that 800 to 1000 died.
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| The memorial | The entrance has been restored and given a roof | ||
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During maintenance 3 years ago |
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| The wall round the entire park | Bullet holes | ||
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From here we went to the Golden Temple again, removing our shoes. And going round the immense feeding holes and kitchens, nearly everything being produced by volunteers: we saw people forming dough, forming Flat Bread and cooking them and then quality checking them . We also saw a commercial version of this where the dough was fed into a machine which automatically formed little breads and then cooked them. We also saw where over 30,000 meals were served every day, these all being free for everyone. They then took back their own dishes and washed them up in another area. It was all on such a huge scale. From here we progressed, still shoeless, along streets to another temple where once upon a time there were super views from the roof but now was blocked by the cities high-rise development and one was no longer allowed upon its roof. Then back to the Golden Temple where they queued of 2 to 3 hours to enter into it’s in a sanctums - so we declined this option.
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We then walked to the partition museum which was really interesting, but I was quite tired by this stage and had to sit down quite a lot. After leaving this we had two drinks of fresh juice from a fruit very similar to oranges but not orange is in a very pleasant position and here we stayed for 30 minutes whilst I took some lunch.
By this time it was 3 pm and we then returned to the car park where eventually the car emerged from the chaos of the movement of cars and drove to the Wagah Gate, arriving there soon after 4 pm. Then there was a short walk to the stadium where the Indian side of the ceremonies took place every night at 5 pm. The other side of the border gate, the Pakistani crowd had there own crown similarly taking their seats in their stadium. The last part we had to do by ourselves and we soon found some seats 5 or 6 rows up, near the gate. Ladies from the Indian army performed rifle twirling in front of the commander of the BSF, the border security force. Then other soldiers appeared and eventually the superbly dressed theatrical soldiers who goose stepped and did acrobatics, reminiscent of communist forces. There was also a large chanting of "Hindustan, Hindustan, Hindustan" Whilst the other side of the gate they were chanting "Pakistan, Pakistan, Pakistan". This all went on for about an hour before the Pakistani and Indian flags were lowered simultaneously. The border has been closed for several months because of border clashes but it’s due to reopen, apparently on November 5.
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We were back in the hotel by 6:30 pm and I went for a swim, the pool area being in near darkness. We asked for some lights to be turned on but none were produced. Later on when we went down for a cocktail, we saw the duty manager who seemed completely unaware of the problem there was in having a swimming pool open till 8 pm in pitch darkness or almost. We had some supper in our room before going down for this cocktail and found there was a Halloween party going on in the bar so we had our cocktail outside the restaurant in a very pleasant area. A good ending to our last full day in India
Sat Nov 1 & Sun Nov 2 Amritsar and Home
Long journey back to Moraira. Aft e filling breakfast, to keep us going in for the rest of the day, I washed my hair and then we went down to the pool for about an hour and I had a long swim. We then cleared the room by noon and sat by the lawn on the restaurant level for an hour before being picked up at 1:30 pm for a drive to the airport. There was an agency centre guide to accompany us and this time he was really quite good. Then a one hour flight from Amritsar to Delhi, which was 30 minutes late. We then had a few hours wait before boarding our plane to Qatar, but run by Indigo, this also being half an hour late and took off at 21:30 pm.
We only received a sandwich and some nuts on this, much to my disgust, it being a 4+ hour flight. Then we boarded a Qatar plane from Qatar to Madrid around 2 am and here again we only received a sandwich and then a breakfast served much too early by a charming steward. This did not make up for the brick of scrambled egg that was in it!
The final stop was Madrid and here we had to wait eight hours for a flight to Valencia the only other one of the day being around 7 am and we would certainly not have connected with this even though we landed soon after six. We had to take a bus from the main terminal to terminal two and it was a bit reminiscent of the bus we took earlier on in Delhi but not quite so crowded with either people or suitcases. Eventually, we landed in Valencia before 17.00pm.
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A really really interesting holiday, very thought provoking and we look forward to learning even more about a religions, the customs the history include the partition, in the months to come.