Amritsar (and Attari)

The Golden Temple, which stands in the centre of a sacred tank of water
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I caught a bus from Dharamsala that left at about 5 o'clock and arrived in Amritsar in the afternoon.

Amritsar is the capital of Sikhism and its main attraction is the Golden Temple.  It's a huge temple complex built from white marble.  In the centre there is a large tank of water, in the middle of which is the gilt Golden Temple itself.  There's a wide marble causeway that goes out to the temple.

my unavoidable separation from India

Men dyeing thread stretched between two trees at the side of the road
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The whole huge complex is full of pilgrims, from before dawn until long after sunset.  It is of course a barefoot temple, and unlike any temple I've visited before, you have to walk through pools of water to wash your feet before entering the temple area.  Your head must also be covered:  if not with a turban, then with a handkerchief (a normal hat will not do, as I discovered when I joined the queue of people waiting to get into the Golden Temple).

Priests in the temple continually sing and chant, and their voices are projected out around the temple complex over a PA.  Despite the throngs of people of all ages, the place has a serene, spiritual atmosphere.

Amritsar bus station is the cleanest, most modern-looking bus station I've seen - there are even spittoons! Classy!
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There are also Hindu temples in Amritsar, one of which is Sri Durgiana.  This temple is a Hindu version of the Sikh Golden Temple, on a slightly smaller scale.  Again, it is mainly a white marble arena, with a tank of water in the middle, in which stands a gilt golden temple with a marble causeway out to it.  There are even the unusual pools of water to wash your feet, just as with the Sikh temple.

The two temples Sri Durgiana and the Sikh Golden Temple were built at around the same time, in the sixteenth century.  I know that the Sikh temple was first plated with gold in 1802; I don't know if this was before or after the Hindu temple had been made golden.  The Hindu temple is not the place of pilgrimage that the Golden Temple is, and the impression of it that you get is that it is a lackluster second-rate imitation.  It's interesting and seems strange to me that one faith should want to imitate the place of worship of another, especially when one of the temples involved is so big and important.

Another of the sacred Sikh sites in Amritsar is Jallianwala Bagh.  This is the formerly disused open space where around twenty thousand unarmed and peacefully protesting Sikh men, boys and children were ruthlessly fired upon by British soldiers.  Two thousand were killed or wounded.

The site has now been made into a memorial garden, and features a gallery of martyrs that displays portraits and brief biographies of Indians (mainly Sikhs) who were killed as a result of their actions against the British.  Two or three of these martyrs are young Sikh men who traveled to England and who were arrested, tried and executed after assassinating British officers or politicians.  There is a statue of one such martyr in the middle of a busy junction in Amritsar:  he is modeled brandishing a revolver.

I am aware that readiness to take up arms for good is an aspect of the Sikh religion, but I think it's problematic that murderers are held as champions in the commemoration of murdered innocents.  However cruel and oppressive British rule in India was, there is no great moral distinction in my mind between the slaughter of unarmed protesters and the assassination of an unarmed law-abiding British officer.  The Sikh memorial to the fight for Indian independence is definitely in contrast to the memorial at his ashram in Ahmedabad to Gandhi's accomplishments through nonviolence.

I should mention the closing of the border ceremony that I went to in Attari, near Amritsar, on the border with Pakistan.  As the border is closed at the end of the day and the two nations' flags are lowered, elaborately uniformed Indian and Pakistani guards march, goosesteping, towards and around each other.  There is stadium seating on both sides of the border, and the Indian and Pakistani crowds scream in support of their respective nations.  Interestingly, the uniforms of the Indian and Pakistani guardsmen are identical, except only for their colour.

While I was visiting Amritsar I stayed in a dorm at one of the pilgrims' inns in the Golden Temple complex.  The dorm was for foreigners only, and it really highlighted for me my unavoidable separation from India as a tourist.  Although lockers are available for your belongings, an element of trust in your room mates is still necessary.  Knowing that the people around you are in the same position - traveling too - and also that they are similarly wealthy makes this possible.  Even more than this though, there is a confidence in cultural understanding that can be felt only exclusively between western foreigners.  Very few Indian men properly understand western women, as is demonstrated by the frequency with which western women are groped and harassed here.  The dorm at the Golden Temple is mixed gender, with all the beds close together in a row.  You might even find a boyfriend and girlfriend snuggling together.  Such an arrangement can only be possible where foreigners are separated from Indians.

I saw again in the dorm at Amritsar one of the recurring images of my trip:  the sight, just as I have settled down ready to sleep, of a lizard running up the wall.

I caught another early-morning bus to Dalhousie.