can i take a snap?

At the Golden Temple in Amritsar, it felt like we were as much of an attracted as the holy temple itself. As the most holy sight of the Sikh religion, there were pilgrims from all over waiting in line to go into this beautiful gold dome on a lake where the original copy of the Sikh holy book is recited. Maybe it is because there aren’t so many tourists in India this time of year, but we were literally bombarded with Indians wanting to take our pictures. And they call pictures ‘snaps’, by the way. People were handing us their babies to take pictures! And to the extent that you really could not sit in one place for more than five minutes without drawing a crowd. After a while, it felt like they must have been viewing us as monuments or something. It is so funny because while this has happened a few times before, it definitely has not been the norm for Indians to do this. And especially upper-class Indian tourists. Why would they want to clutter family albums with some random white girls? Very odd.

The whole scene at the Golden Temple is really quite amazing and utopian. The pilgrims that come their sleep in an open courtyard for free. It actually looks quite like any train station, with all the people spread out on the ground. But everyone is barefoot and with head coverings. They even provide basic meals to all the pilgrims for free. You should see the kitchen, vats of Dhal the size of cars. People didn’t mind at all that we were visiting their holy sight as just a tourist attraction. Quite the opposite, they even have a free dorm for foreign visitors to stay in within the Temple complex. Of course we were subject to the same rules: no shoes, smoking, alcohol, etc. They seemed to almost be guided by a religious duty to welcome us into their spiritual place. One man even scolded me for sitting with my feet facing towards the Temple and then asked me to come sit with him while he explained the tenets of the Sikh religion and the history of the sight.

What did I learn? Well the lake surrounding the Temple has healing powers, which is why all the pilgrims and visitors are encouraged to ‘take the dip’. (No - I didn’t get in the water, there would have been too many snaps!) Also, they carry small swords or daggers around to symbolize the military struggles that defined the early period of the religion Also the turbans that they wear are covering years of uncut hair, cutting your hair or beard is strictly against the Sikh tradition. This was especially interesting to learn because I think people in America most commonly associate the turban with India but not with the Sikh religion in particular. Actually, the Sikhs are the only ones that wear turbans and I have even heard Hindus refer to the Sikhs as ‘Turbans’ - kind of a term of endearment.

The most wonderful thing about the Golden Temple might have to be the bathrooms. WOW! The first time in India I haven’t dreaded going to the bathroom. You would think that a place that sees over 40,000 would have scary bathrooms, but they really clean up constantly. It was not only pleasant for me, but really nice to see them taking such pride in the appearance of the place. It really sucks to see people litter so much in this land, and just generally not seem to care about keeping things nice or presentable. The other day I talking to a kid from Bombay trying to explain to him why he shouldn’t through his water bottle out the window. My argument was, “it’s PLASTIC!” His argument was, “it’s INDIA!” Stalemate.