Amritsar is for the Sikhs what Mecca is for the Muslims, a holy city. Once in their life, the Sikhs have to carry out a pilgrimage to the golden temple.
Chorus of honks, tangle of bicycles, rickshaws and horse-towed carts welcome us. First images of a milling, life-seething town. A forgotten atmosphere since we went off to Himachal Pradesh in exile. The Indian truth resurfaces again. In the streets, thick beards on smiling faces topped by firmly swaddled turbans. The Sikhs, a bewildering religion.
On the way to the golden temple, we stop in front of cages full of chicks. Further to genetic modifications, they wear colours oddly different from the common yellow. Actually, the invigorating dyes aren't only for the Hindu women's saris...
We draw near the enclosure of the temple whose one of the gilded cupolas drift above the drab and filthy street. Other white-angel-like domes break away from the muddled alleyways we step on. We take our shoes off, don a scarf on the head and get into the holy area. A mesmerizing music surrounds the holy place and hundreds of followers tread around the artificial rectangular lake. Some of them purify themselves into its waters while others line up to visit the golden temple.
This quite recent religion is definitely baffling but offers us an architectural jewel, a temple covered with glistening golden leaves when richly coloured pilgrims with turquoise, pink and orange shades soak in this musical and religious aura.
Keyword - culture shock -
Tuesday 2 October 2007
The pilgrimage of the Sikhs to the golden temple
By dorian on Tuesday 2 October 2007, 14:30 - RTW-India
Sunday 16 September 2007
First steps in Delhi
By dorian on Sunday 16 September 2007, 19:02 - RTW-India
I leave Nepal to embark on the Indian adventure. Only 15 days spent in this magical country, but the departure is heartrending. Flight from Kathmandu to Delhi. I experience a dual feeling as I get off the plane. An overwhelming desire to discover this country-continent and a deep reluctance fed by the numerous divergent opinions I gleaned so far. India, we love or we hate but we can't stay indifferent. I'll know more in one month.
Religiously or culturally rich, the country is a patchwork of imposing monuments, dynamic and warm-hearted people nodding the head to give their agreement and wonderful landscapes. "Incredible India" the billboards hammer out. I don't know where to start the trip from : following the Ganges eastward to reach the sacred city of Varanasi and perhaps extend to Calcutta and the Sikkim state ; heading northward for a bit of coolness at the foothills of the Himalaya and dipping into the buddhist fervour in Dharamsala, dalai lama's resting place ; going by the jewels of the Rajasthan westward and getting to the Punjab, country of the sikhs or, drifting southward to finish on a heavenly beach next to Goa, the former Portuguese protectorate.
The heavy religious differences keep the look on. The sikhs' turbans frequent the muslim djellabahs, the shaved-headed Buddhist monks and the Hindu tikkas while jainists dust a bench before sitting. As I get out the airport shuttle-bus, the night has fallen. I meet a German that leads me to a cosy guesthouse in the Paharganj district. En route, the first pictures of poverty and dirtiness. Lots of beggars, invalids and disabled persons strew the streets without having another place to sleep. Pestilential smells shake me. Rats dig the garbage areas and the horns of the rickshaws get through the traffic jam. The German relates me his ending trip in India when I'm in a hurry my Canadian friend arrives because 2 are not too much to cheer up one another.
More than 2 years we haven't seen at each other, and Alain shares this desire and this reluctance to discover India. We walk to visit the red fort I hardly appreciate. I didn't digest my first meal in India...
We decide to leave Delhi by the morning train to Shimla, in the northeastern Himachal Pradesh state. A necessary exile. Searching for a bit of coolness and serenity, a more rural India. Our spirit isn't enough well-prepared to accept the contrasts of Delhi despite the hospitality and the kindness of the Indians.
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