Jallian Wala Bagh (Site of the Amritsar Massacre)

There is a stark contrast between the Golden Temple experience and that of visiting the site of the Amritsar Massacre.  It lies only 400 meters north of the Golden Temple.  Most Americans, if they know anything at all about this tragic massacre, know it only from Richard Attenborough's film... "Gandhi"....

In case you have forgotten....here is how it looked in the movie:

Jallain Wala Bagh

In a nutshell....the story goes like this:

In Amritsar, India's holy city of the Sikh religion, British and Gurkha troops massacre at least 379 unarmed demonstrators meeting at the Jallianwala Bagh, a city park. Most of those killed were Indian nationalists meeting to protest the British government's forced conscription of Indian soldiers and the heavy war tax imposed against the Indian people.


A few days earlier, in reaction to a recent escalation in protests, Amritsar was placed under martial law and handed over to British Brigadier General Reginald Dyer (a seriously bad man if there ever was one!!) who banned all meetings and gatherings in the city. On April 13, 1919... the day of the Sikh Baisakhi festival, tens of thousands of people came to Amritsar from surrounding villages to attend the city's traditional fairs.

Thousands of these people, many unaware of Dyer's recent ban on public assemblies, convened at Jallianwala Bagh, where a nationalist demonstration was being held. Dyer's troops surrounded the park and without warning opened fire on the crowd, killing several hundred and wounding more than a thousand. Dyer, who in a subsequent investigation admitted to ordering the attack for its "moral effect" on the people of the region, had his troops continue the murderous barrage until all their artillery was exhausted. British authorities later removed him from his post.

The massacre stirred nationalist feelings across India and had a profound effect on one of the movement's leaders, Mohandas Gandhi. During World War I, Gandhi had actively supported the British in the hope of winning partial autonomy for India, but after the Amritsar Massacre he became convinced that India should accept nothing less than full independence. To achieve this end, Gandhi began organizing his first campaign of mass civil disobedience against Britain's oppressive rule.

There is a beautiful mural of the incident inside the museum portion of the memorial.  General Dyer's face has been gouged off of the painting on the wall: (Photo credit:  Me!!)

It was here that we had our first run-in withe the local "paparazzi".  There were many children visiting the memorial the day we were there...and most of them had cameras or mobile phones with built-in cameras.  If ever we felt like we were visiting from the moon...this was it!!  We were literally surrounded by school kids (see photo upper left)...  Everybody wanted a photo with the "strange white couple from the moon"...and we kindly obliged, of course...  It was pretty wild.

After the kids left us alone...we had some time to reflect on the horror of the place.  There are places in the walls where they have left the bullet holes - and have highlighted them.  Original and huge holes in the mud-bricks made by the Lee-Enfield No. 4 rifles carried by Dyers' goon squads.  The place where the people died in the well is preserved, untouched....  It is a monument to man's inhumanity...and lies just a stone's throw from one of the holiest sites on the planet...a place dedicated to peace and tranquility and charity and the love of God manifest amongst His people. An amazing contrast.

We were pretty emotionally spent by the mid-afternoon...and we opted to pass on some of the other sites on our tour.  Instead, we went back to the Ista Hotel in Amritsar for a shower and a nap before our sundown visit to the Wagah Border Ceremony...  Stay tuned for that....we have video (coming soon!)

The Beauty of Amritsar

Amritsar was by far my favorite place that we have visited in India since we arrived.  Srisailam was cool, too.... but the Golden Temple makes Amritsar such a special, spiritual place.  And I think Amy Suzanne might say the same.  We liked Jaipur so much that we actually went twice...but for different reasons.  In Jaipur, she found a place for show jumping long before we ever left for India...a wonderful place called Silver Spurs Equestrian Stables (ASB's testimonial is on this site...check it out!!) and we went there on our second trip to Jaipur in January...more on that later...)  But Amritsar??  A slice of heaven on earth.  Allow me to explain:

The Golden Temple is so beautiful.  The very gleam and luster of the gold on the incredibly ornate and yet elegant exterior looks like God's own throne-room - - As Christians, we sometimes talk about the "pearly gates" and the "streets of gold" in Heaven....well... that's what the Golden Temple looks like.  But the amazing part is not the grounds, it's not the temple itself...it's the atmosphere of the whole place.  It's the people.  It's the spiritual nature of the place ... and it's the Sikh religion that envelopes the place....it's hard to put a finger on just what I felt there....

Suzanne took a lot of pictures there.  Here is the link to our Facebook albums that include Amritsar and the Wagah Border Ceremony.... Our First India Vacation (Part Three of Four) and The Last of Our Vacation Photos (Volume Four)

As you can see from Amy's photos...there is a lot of charity going on in the place.  One of the hallmarks of the Sikh religion is their dedication to works of charity.  Feeding the poor is not only a Sikh practice...it seems that it's a mandate!  I know of the ritual "free meal" of the Sikhs before I came to India... the Vermont Gurdwara is right down the street from my home parish, St. Mary of the Angels.

The Langar or free kitchen was started by the first Sikh Guru, Guru Nanak Dev Ji. It is designed to uphold the principle of equality between all people of the world regardless of religion, caste, colour, creed, age, gender or social status. In addition to the ideals of equality, the tradition of Langar expresses the ethics of sharing, community, inclusiveness and oneness of all humankind. "..the Light of God is in all hearts." 

For the first time in history, Guruji designed an institution in which all people would sit on the floor together, as equals, to eat the same simple food. It is here that all people high or low, rich or poor, male or female, all sit in the same pangat (literally "row" or "line") to share and enjoy the food together.

The Langar has served the community in many ways. It has ensured the participation of women and children in a task of service for mankind. Women play an important role in the preparation of meals, and the children help in serving food to the pangat. Langar also teaches the etiquette of sitting and eating in a community situation, which has played a great part in upholding the virtue of sameness of all human beings; providing a welcome, secure and protected sanctuary.

Everyone is welcome to share the Langar; no one is turned away. The food is normally served twice a day, every day of the year. Each week a family or several families volunteer to provide and prepare the Langar. This is very generous, as there may be several hundred people to feed, and caterers are not allowed. All the preparation, the cooking and the washing-up is done by volunteers and or by voluntary helpers (also known as Sewadars).

Besides the Langars attached to gurdwaras, there are improvised open-air Langars at the time of festivals and gurpurbs. Specially arranged Langars on such occasions are probably the most largely attended community meals anywhere in the world. There might be a hundred thousand people partaking of food at a single meal in one such langar. Wherever Sikhs are, they have established their Langars. In their prayers, the Sikhs seek from the Almighty the favour:

“Loh langar tapde rahin."

"May the iron pots of Langar be ever warm (in service).”  (Thanks to SikhiWiki for the info that I pirated!)

And it's not just the Langar pots (and ovens and chapati making machines - they feed so many people at the Golden Temple that not all of the chapatis and pulkhas can be made by hand!) that are warm.  It's the warmth of the people that really struck us.  Our guide could not have been more pleasant...very knowledgeable about all things Sikhi (and we discussed the deeper things of life throughout our visit...I'm sure this drove Amy Suzanne crazy...which is I'm sure why she took such awesome photos when we were in Amritsar!)  Although we got stared-at quite a bit (let's face it...look at the pics...Suzanne could not have looked any whiter and I was looking like a biker Priest from Mars...with my black clergy shirt and a bright orange "Golden Temple" bandanna on my head!) - we were made to feel as welcome as visiting royalty!

We spent the most amount of time wandering about the grounds of the Golden Temple as we did any other time on our vacation.  The place was just magnetic...a place that made you want to stay.

The most interesting part (for me) was when our guide asked if I wanted to meet a Sikh Priest (called a Granthi, I believe)...and of course we said "yes!"  We walked past some guards and up two flights of stairs to the building full of "clergy" quarters that surround the shrine and lake. We were ushered in and given tea.  The cell looked like any monk's cell...small...one bed.... icons on the walls (various pictures of Guru Nanak and the Golden Temple...along with pictures of all the Sikh gurus) - - and a state-of-the-art treadmill in the corner!!!

The priest who lived in this room came in and greeted us...but it became apparent that he spoke no English whatsoever.  I asked a couple of questions through our guide as our interpreter - - the priest was a tall man...the longest gray beard I had ever seen...past his waist... surrounding the greatest smile and wrinkled brown skin.  The whole time he was with us....he was getting dressed in his most traditional Sikh garb because, as it turned out, he was officiating at a wedding that afternoon.  He had on a sharp blue turban, a white kurta and white linen pants...covered over by a long  woollen sweater-vest in gray.  He attached a long ceremonial sword to his belt...and calmly put all THREE of his cell-phones into various pockets!!  One was a BlackBerry!

I had one last thing to say.  I simply had to mention the nice treadmill.  As the kindly old priest was saying his goodbyes and making his way toward the door, I knew that the time of our visit had come to a close. I said to our guide... "Tell him that I admire his dedication to God...and to physical fitness!!" - as I motioned toward the treadmill... It was just then that I realized that he did speak at least some English after all - he gave a hearty laugh and shook my hand long before the guide got around to interpreting what I had said into Punjabi!

Here ended our stay at the Golden Temple.  Stay tuned for more!!  Next up... our visit to the memorial site for the Amritsar Massacre (also known as the Jallianwala Bagh massacre) and the Wagah Border Flag Lowering Ceremony) 

Amritsar (and the Golden Temple)

If you are a stickler about itineraries that stay "on time" - then traveling by road in India is not for you.  Our carefully planned schedule declared that the drive from Agra back to New Delhi was to take "4 hours" after an "early breakfast".  In retrospect, I am extremely happy that we took the "early" part of breakfast seriously.  Our flight from Indira Gandhi International Airport to Amritsar was due to take off at 4:00 P.M.  We finished our delicious Indian breakfast at straight-up 8:00 A.M. - knowing that we would arrive at the airport at least two-hours early.

Then...on the road to New Delhi..."a little bit of India" happened.  There were wandering herds of goats crossing the road...a truck loaded with about 300% more rice than it could have possibly held had broken its' axles and spilled it's load all over the only road out of town, several other overturned trucks and assorted "goods carriers...and, of course, the the occasional broken-down auto-rickshaw that was completely blocking traffic.  All of this...coupled with the traffic-jam-from-hell that started at the very outskirts of Delhi and lasted all the way to the airport....we came very close to missing our flight.  The drive took almost exactly eight hours instead of four!!

We made it through security and out to the gate where our ride was to take us out to the tarmac and our plane... just as the first bus was loading.  As we are driving along, looking at each other and wondering aloud just how we managed to make our drive in eight hours instead of the recommended four (kudos to our driver, Raj - - he really cut through the traffic jam like a champion!)...it dawned on me that there was no large plane parked anywhere near where we were headed.  The only airplanes on the tarmac were small, propeller driven ones.  Let me say up-front that I am not a fan of small planes.

I know Amy was as frightened as I was.  Not of the plane...but of the fact that I might not able to get ON the plane.  I dug deep and found some bravery that I didn't know that I possessed - - and we got on to the tight and claustrophobic interior of Kingfisher Airlines Flight No. IT 4309 and found our seats for the just-over one-hour and fifteen-minutes flight to Amritsar.

We landed a little later than expected...but our travel staff from Zutshi Travel World Services were right there outside the terminal at Amritsar airport awaiting our arrival.  The airport was brand new looking...and looked very much like the same architects that did the airports in Hyderabad, Bangalore, the new terminal in Delhi had designed this one.  Our guide was with the crew...and he asked us if we were interested in keeping to the schedule to see the Golden Temple at sunset.  To be truthful...the idea of spending one extra minute in a car after the drive from Agra to New Delhi was pretty unappetizing.  we opted to go straight to the hotel for a good dinner and good nights' sleep.  The hotel that was booked for us was the Ista Hotel - - and - a huge brand-new mall had been built right next-door to it...very similar to the InOrbit Mall in Hyderabad.  We checked in and got started on our wonderful stay in Amritsar....by far our favorite place on this leg of the journey into the Golden Triangle.

On the morning of Sunday 28 November - we got up and met our guide in the lobby.  He was a devout Sikh, which turned out to be very interesting and a tremendous boon to the discussions we would have throughout the day.  The drive out to the Golden Temple was a bit longer than we had figured on...but - it was so worth it!!  One can not help but notice that the place is truly "holy ground".  After parking the car...you only enter the temple grounds after carefully washing your hands and feet in the fountains and pools provided... there is this... - I guess I'll call it an "aura" about the place that is unlike anything I have ever felt before.  I have never been to the Vatican...I can imagine that the feeling there is similar...

When the actual temple comes into view...it is so stunning...so... well.... GOLDEN!!  The day itself was a little hazy...but the golden glow of the temple cut through the light fog like a beacon.  The male pilgrims visiting the temple were surrounding the lake that surrounds the structure...taking religious baths with their children - there was a special area for the women to bathe.  The line that crossed the bridge over the shrine lake that led to the temple for the daily reading from the Sri Guru Granth Sahib was daunting...and - we never braved it to go inside.  This was O.K. for us...because it took us the better part of the morning to take-in the beauty of the place!!

More on our day at the Golden Temple to come....stay tuned!!

Here are the photos that Amy Suzanne took during our first full day in Amritsar:  Our First Indian Vacation Part Three (of Four)