Going out of order here, these are my photos of Amritsar, which I spent a day in between Dharamsala and Delhi.
Amritsar is in the Indian state of
Punjab, about forty minutes from the border with Pakistan. The last ground war with Pakistan in 1971 was fought along the Punjab border. Today the border is stable and somewhat peaceful, with trade of textiles and food crossing the border both ways and a colorful ceremony on the
Wagah Border each night as both countries lower their flags at the same time. The ceremony was a surprise, as I didn't notice "going to Pakistan" was really on my itinerary until we were on the road to it. I asked if they would let me put my foot in, like the time that my parents took me to Colorado and we stopped at the state border and I put my feet into Utah or something, so I could put a foot in and say, "Hey, I was in Pakistan." Actually Wagah is a no-man's land anyway, and even so they wouldn't let us get within 20 feet of the opposite gate. The ceremony was fascinating not really for its pageantry of the soldiers walking back and forth to salute each other, but for the crowds on both sides. On the idea side, there was color and and crowds dancing and the place was packed. On the Pakistan side, the amphitheater was about 2/3rds empty, men and women were seperated, and the men were wearing mostly white and the women mostly black. Both countries had sort of an MC, who would signal the crowd to cheer for their country (which in India's case was "Hindustan!") and then the other MC would do the same to compete on the other side ("Jia Jia! Pakistan!"). The Pakistani side did a good effort of keeping up the noise for how few they were in numbers, but perhaps the most poignant moment was after the actual ceremony, when the crowds were allowed to come to the bars of the two gates, 20 feet apart, and both sides waved to each other and took pictures with their cameras. People forget that before the
Partition, Pakistan was part of India, and millions of people were displaced when the Hindus went one way and the Muslims went another. The Sikhs dominate the Punjab state, and the ones on the Pakistani side have had to endure a heavy non-Muslim tax, which angers India.
Primarily, Amristar is the holy city of the Sikhs, a religion whose members wear turbans and are often mistaken for Arabs in this country. Sikhism was founded by Guru Nanak, a 15th-century sage from Lahore (now in Pakistan), who came west to discover a caste system he didn't care for, so he was inspired to create a religion anyone could join and that did not have a caste system. Sikh men and women cover their hair, men grow beards, and they are supposed to always have on them five things: uncut hair, underwear, a silver bracelet, a comb, and a ritual dagger. The last thing created a mess in the Amtrak station in Providence either on 9/11 or the day after (I forget), when a Sikh man had his bags searched by some racist security guards who assumed he was Arab and found his ritual dagger, which created quite a stir in Providence before things were sorted out.
The holiest site is the
Golden Temple, built in 1577 and really one of the most incredible buildings in the world. It is plated with gold, and though it is forbidden to take photographs inside, I managed to snap a few, but they are sideways. The pool surrounding it is the Pool of Nectar, which comes from a fresh spring of water and people bathe in it for health and penance. The Golden Temple is open about 20 hours a day, and closed around midnight for cleaning, but the complex is open 24 hours a day and 24 hours a day they have someone reading the sacred book of the Sikhs over the loadspeaker. Food is free for all pilgrims, as is guest housing, though I would recommend a hotel. It was very hot there when I was there, probably 100 or 105 degrees, but it wasn't unbearable. They were very serious about guests removing their shoes and covering their hair. I also visited it briefly the night before the official visit to get some pictures. Unlike other sites in India, admission is free for all at all times. I was really happy for the chance to go. Amristar is fairly far north of Delhi, so originally I scratched it off my list even though I mentioned it in book 10 of my series, but then I discovered it was only a few hours from Dharamsala, so not terribly out-of-the-way. The return to Delhi was a 6-hour train ride.
My final stop in Amritsar was Jallianwala Bagh, a park which was the site of a British massacre of civilians in 1919. The episode spurred on the Indian Independence movement and is a major event in the movie Gandhi. One of the most notable monuments is the well of matyrs, where people fell to their death to escape the hail of bullets.
Jallianwala Bagh
The next few days are Shavuos, but after the holiday I will get up my pictures from Delhi, from traveling, and of course, Dharamsala.
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