We returned to the golden temple, which is considered by Sikhs to be the holiest of places and it is somewhere that all Sikhs will want to visit at least once in their lives. Last night we had witnessed the night time ceremony where the holy book is paraded and put to bed. This morning we went into the golden temple and saw the holy book and then went into another temple where we saw the bed where it is bedded down every night. Each morning it is woken up and returned to the golden temple. What a ritual!
The Sikh way of life seems to make sense in that there are three doctrines in which they believe, hard work, meditation and sharing what they have with others. They also don't pray to a god but instead meditate. The golden temple was built in 1577 and the dome is gilded with 750kg of pure gold. No wonder it's beautiful.
After the temple we visited the kitchen and dining area where 40,000 people are fed everyday for free. What an amazing spectacle. Everything was on such a huge scale. There were dozens of ladies sat on the floor peeling garlic and chopping chillies.
In another area there were dozens of people preparing chapattis and of course I helped them with the rolling. Not sure 40,000 would be fed if I was on the books.
I also helped out with the curry making but stirring an enormous bubbling cauldron was quite difficult. (No witch jokes thank you).
We then saw the dining room where hundreds of people were sat on mats eating from stainless steel plates.
After the dining room came the washing up, and no I didn't volunteer himself.
The whole set up runs like clockwork.
After the temple we visited the site of the 1919 massacre where up to 1000 peaceful protesters were gunned down on the say so of General Dwyer, a Brit. After he had returned to the UK a survivor of the attack went to England and General Dwyer got his cumuppance when he was shot. The Indian was eventually hung in the 1940's.
After a very quick lunch we set off for the Pakistan/Indian border so that we could watch the beating the retreat ceremony where the Pakistani and Indian military try to outdo each other with their ceremonial skills. It was all a bit ridiculous really and I'm not sure how they managed to high kick quite the way they did but we were entertained, as were thousands of other tourists. In order to watch this ceremony we had to leave our bags in the hotel, have our passports checked countless times and also be searched 4 times during the 10 min walk from the taxi.
One of the check points.
A post box en route
The watching crowds
A loaded cycle!
This evening we have had a buffet dinner, which consisted of curried cheese, curried mutton, curried lentils, curried chicken, etc, you get the picture. Whatever it is its curried. It was all very nice but we decided against washing it down with a bottle of Jacobs Creek at £30!!!!
Tomorrow we leave here at 9 and fly back to Delhi to pick up our tour bus and carry on down to Agra. Taj Mahal here we come.
Lots of curry today then. Bet it smells... like curry.
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