Amritsar - back to the Golden Temple, shopping and the Jallian Wala Bagh MemorialNov 28, 2010
|
|
| Nirmal.... The day started at 6:00 am with Ram picking us up to go to the Golden Temple at sunrise. A quick stop in front of the Khalsa College for Women to search for Lisa’s sunglasses that fell out of my shirt pocket the night before as I was scaling a brick-wrought iron wall to get a better shot of the castle like college. Murray and I had headlamps on and Murray quickly found the glasses in under 10 minutes. Back on track to the Golden Temple. We went in and took a few shots of the place and then walked around the temple as it starting to get light. The red glow against the Golden temple provided some spectacular shots. Murray, Susan and Lisa were constantly asked for snaps, young boys and girls wanting to take their picture with them. An elderly man asked to have his snap and then returned with his wife. We walked through the Akal Takhat, where the holy book, Guru Granth Sahib Ji is kept during the night. There were prayers chanted by a guru and a man was beating on a large kettle drum during pauses in the prayer. Next, we went through the Sikh museum that was lined with paintings that depicted the history of the religion, complete with graphic scenes of persecutions from the Muslims attempting to convert the Sikh’s to Islam. There were also photos and death masks of the 1984 massacre of the Sikh rebels who had fortified themselves within the grounds of the Temple against Indira Ghandi’s military forces. A quick trip back to the hotel for breakfast and then out to the shopping district, Katra Jamal Singh Bazaar. Lisa and Susan picked up their tailor made pant suits, while I purchased a kirpan and a few more karas. We strolled down some less travelled alleys filled with never ending tiny cloth shops. Lisa and Susan were searching for some shawls, meanwhile constantly avoiding the endless stream of people carrying bolts of cloth on their shoulders, on rickshaws and motorcycles. Another sensory overload! After a few hours of wandering about, out pacing the few beggars, we decided to go to the biggest mall in the Punjab. It was similar to the bay centre in Victoria, with a few less floors. Security was tighter than an airport, metal detectors, pat downs and bag searches, just to get into a mall! Inside it was like every other mall in Canada, everything in English, similar stores with some name variations, with the only difference, the shoppers were all well dressed Indians. Back to the hotel for a quick rest and shower and then to the Crystal Lounge for dinner at 7:30. We are taking Ram out for dinner and we let him choose the resteraunt. After dinner we plan to go back to the golden temple and endure the line up to get inside the Hari Mandir Sahib, the two storey marble lined golden domed temple that is situated in the middle of the Amtri Sarovar, or more commonly known as the pool of nectar. |
Advertisement 
|
