Stickshifts & Safetybelts

Amritsar, India

My second month in the largest democracy in the world has been full of ups, downs and lots of sweating. I recently took a trip to Amritsar with a few of the other interns here at the Tibetan Government. Amritsar is located near the India-Pakistan border and home to incredibly important Indian landmarks such as Jallianwala Bagh memorial and the Golden Temple, the holiest temple in the Sikh religion.

The road to Amritsar was rough, literally. On the trip was my friend Darshen, an Indian grad student from UNC, Bree a undergrad from new york, Catherine a med student helping out at a TB clinic, Annette from the Bay Area and Momo from Thailand. We made a very interesting tour group. The 4 hour rented taxi ride was a bumpy ride but allowed me to get a much better look at Indian roads, as opposed to being in the back of a bus. The Indian countryside around Dharamsala is beautiful and it was amazing to see just how packed this country is. Huts and shops were everywhere along the road and even though we were in the middle of nowhere people were still plentiful walking along the roads. Unfortunately for me, the roads became worse the farther and farther we went from Dharamsala and I had got pretty carsick. My two pills of Dramamine didn't help and I started feeling sickly. I asked the driver to pull over ASAP and jumped out and blew chunks. Of course, in India there are people everywhere and as I looked up after my session there was a group of guys sitting on the road staring at me. After a month and a half in India what I’ve begun to lose is my embarrassment and shame. And simply, I was too damn car sick to care and proceeded to blow more chunks for their amusement.

The rest of the trip wasn’t so bad and a few hours later we arrived in Amritsar, Punjab. Our first stop was the Sikh Golden Temple. Being the ignorant American I am, I had done absolutely no prior research to Amritsar or in that case anything about India. All I knew about the golden temple was the assault in the ‘80s by Indira Gandhi on it to kill the Sikh nationalists who wanted an independent Sikh country. The assault by the Indian military led to the defamation of this important Sikh religious monument and the eventual assassination of Indira by her Sikh bodyguards in retaliation.

Before entering the temple, our group checked in our shoes and covered our head with bandannas and scarves. In the temple no one is allowed to wear shoes and all heads must be covered. I have never seen so many barefoot people in my life with a wide assortment of of head scarves, turbans and bandannas. Upon entering the temple, we washed out feet in accordance with Sikh tradition and entered. The whole temple itself consists of an outer temple perimeter with a lagoon surrounding the inner golden temple. The golden temple itself is situated in the center of the pool of water accessible through one land bridge. I honesty was completely awestruck at what I had just walked into. Looking around I saw people on the ground praying, Sikh men were undressing and entering the water to bathe, Sikh drums and prayers were chanted through loudspeakers, huge Sikh men holding harpoons were guarding the area and there were thousands of pilgrims circulating the golden temple. I was speechless.

Walking around the outer temple were Sikh people of all ages, young kids wearing the traditional head wrappings along with old men. All were sitting and praying or entering the water to bathe, it was an amazing sight and surprisingly saw few tourists around. At each corner of the temple were water stations where people were continuously filling bowls of water for pilgrims while one another side offerings were being distributed to be taken into the golden temple itself.

After taking our offering we waited in a huge line to enter the golden temple inside. Inside the temple were three gurus, one was on the drums, one was on a piano type instrument and another was chanting. At the temple, these chants go on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Inside the golden temple there were also numerous gurus reading from the Sikh scriptures as people prostrated and threw money at them as they read. Beforehand I knew absolutely nothing about the Sikh people but later did some reading to find out that the founder of Sikhism was unsatisfied with both Islam and Hinduism and created Sikhism to eliminate the caste system and emphasize hard work. Thus, at the temple there is a high emphasis on equality. In the outer temple is a huge dining hall where everyone is fed for free by the huge volunteer staff that is continually making roti brad, dal and rice.

Our group was ushered in and sat in a huge dining hall on the floor as people came by and dropped food onto our plates. The food definitely didn’t look sanitary as it was served by hand by people carrying buckets of rice and dal. Nevertheless, I wasn’t going to be a bad guest and graciously accepted my roti w/ two hands, to thank the gods, and devoured one of my best meals in India. Eating in the massive dining hall with the hundreds of people on the floor was an amazing communal experience. I definitely had one of those "what the hell am I doing" moments as I sat on the floor among the hundreds of people devouring rice and bread with my hands. It rocked.

After the Golden temple we ventured 40 minutes west to the India/Pakistan border for the daily border closing ceremony. This event is supposed to be a must see for anyone visiting India as it is a display of Indian and Pakistani military bravado and nationalism.

Our group sat in the foreigner VIP section for 3 hours in the scalding sun in a huge stadium like seating arrangement right alongside the border. A whole economy of pirated videos, food, drink, and tourist trinkets has grown for the hundreds of people that visit the border each day. It was ridiculous to see how many shops, restaurants and hawkers had set up shop at the border. Our group sat through numerous Bollywood songs, dancing crowds, women running with flags up and down the border along with nationalist chants. I'd never seen Indian nationalism and this was an amazing experience as people chanted "Hindustan Zindabad!" which means 'Hindustan forever.' Finally after the long wait the ceremony started as Indian soldiers marched up and down the border throwing their legs up as they goose stepped and lowered the Indian flag in unison with the Pakistan flag on the other side at sunset. The Indian crowd was MUCH louder, bigger and crazier as it seemed like the Pakistani people were just sitting and watching while the Indian side was flipping out. Myself along with the other foreigners there felt really out of place and watched first-hand as Indians and Pakistanis yelled their heads off at each other. All in all it was an interesting experience and was a first-hand dose of international politics.

That night, Momo and I decided to stay at the dormitories at the Golden temple instead of the A/C hotel rooms. I read in lonely planet that foreigners are allowed to stay in the guest dormitories inside the temple, though it is more of an experience than anything else. The dormitories were crammed full of foreigners on a long row of beds. Many were travelers trying to save a buck while others were like us who wanted to experience the real Amritsar. I met a south Korean guy, a few Swiss and a ton of Brits inside. All were hardcore travelers who were just stopping in Amritsar for a few days.

Around 5 in the morning I woke up, restless from the hard beds. I went for a walk around, acknowledging the Sikh guard holding a harpoon at the door as I left. I walked into the inner temple area, awestruck again. The golden temple itself was light up in an awesome display of lights that were beautifully back dropped on the moon. The sun had gone down but people were out everywhere, the kitchen was bustling and the chanting was going on as well and there was still a huge line to get into the main temple. I walked around the temple at night, attracting a lot of stares from people walking around. As I started walking around the golden temple I found a small memorial apparently to a fallen Sikh general. People were prostrating to it and throwing money. Unaware of who he was, I threw in a few rupees for a good measure. The most common question people ask when they first meet me is "where are you from?" Most people are surprised when I say the states as apparently I look either Japanese or Korean. I met a really interesting Sikh guy on my walk that night who took it upon himself to explain to me everything about Sikhism and show me around. It was great to have someone who knew what was going on and I had a great discussion with him about religion, politics and my travels. I didn't go back to bed that morning, instead I looked more around the Sikh temples all the while as people approached me and inquired as where I was from. There's definitely no hesitation in asking questions and I was able to learn a ton about not only Sikhs but India as well.

On our final day in Amritsar our last destination was Jallianwala Bagh. If you've seen the movie Gandhi its the scene where the British General Dyer opens fire on thousands of Sikhs. In 1919, thousands gathered at the Jallianwala Bagh to protest recent British legislation against Indians. General Dyer opened fire without warning and killed hundreds of unarmed people including women and children. The high walls of the whole area enclose the ground, with only a small corridor being the only entrance and exit. Dyer moved in his soliders on top of the surrounding buildings and placed a tank in the entrance corridor, essentially trapping the people in the square.
The Massacre of Amritsar was an enormously important event during the Indian Swaraj movement that united and mobilized millions of Indian people around Gandhi's non-cooperation movement with the British. The grounds have been turned into a park, with the well where people had jumped into to avoid the gunfire being renamed 'martyrs well.'

After a high-class meal in Amritsar we said our goodbyes to Darshen whose headed back to UNC and returned back to Dharamsala. My trip to Amritsar has been my favorite excursion in India thus far, in large part due to our unofficial local Indian tour guide, Darshen. The Sikh people and culture are amazing and I am forever indebted to their generosity and kindness.