About 10 am on the 12th I took a shared jeep down the curvy road from McLeod Ganj to Dharamsala, and then caught a 10:30 bus east on a two hour trip through rolling hills to Palampur. Phil was heading directly to Amritsar that morning, so we parted ways after a month and a half of traveling together. He was a great traveling companion. A chemical engineer specializing in water treatment who live sounth of London, he is taking a year off to travel, first in India, then Nepal, southeast Asia and the Far East. From Palampur I caught a bus further east for another hour to Baijnath, arriving about 1:30. Baijnath is a small town at about 3200 feet elevation and I got a decent hotel and then had a good lunch. From my hotel balcony there were great views of the Dhauldhar Range, the high, jagged mountains that separate Dharamsala and the Kangra Valley from the Chamba Valley further north. Later in the afternoon I visited a couple of stone temples, one of which was very nice, similar in style to those in Chamba. The worshipers were friendly and I was the only foreigner there. Afterwards I walked to the train station on the narrow gauge line built in the 1920's. It was a longer walk than expected, a mile and a half away. I watched a train pull out at 6, just before dark. Back in town I had a great meal of 6-8 pieces of mutton, dhal, and chappatis for about $1.30.
It was clear with great views of the mountains to the north the next morning. I walked to the temple and enjoyed watching all the worshipers. There was much pouring of water and placing of flower petals on idols, plus bell ringing, and again people were very friendly. About 10 I walked to the train station, taking a shortcut, and left a little before 11 on the narrow gauge (2 1/2 feet, as in Shimla) railroad on an eight car train heading west to Kangra. There were only two other tourists and it was a scenic ride, though not spectacularly so. We had a long delay in Palampur waiting for another train to pass, and arrived in Kangra about 1:30. I walked a ways and then took a crowded bus to the center of town and got a hotel.
After lunch I took an autorickshaw to Kangra Fort at the western end of town. This huge fort was much fought over, as it was the strongpoint of the Kangra Kingdom, with a rich temple at Kangra itself that always attracted Moslem pillagers from the northwest, and was later captured by the Mughals. The fort is located between two river gorges, hundreds of feet deep, and can be entered only through a narrow neck at the east end. It was lastly occupied by the British from the 1840's until it was severely damaged by an earthquake in 1905. It looks like it has been partially rebuilt and is quite an impressive site, with great views over the river gorges, which join together to the west. It looks like a fairly impregnable spot, but I guess it wasn't..
I spent a little over an hour there and then went back to the center of town to visit the temple, approached through a somewhat steep and curving bazaar full of pilgrims, many of them in yellow, and shops catering to them. It was all quite colorful and chaotic. The temple itself is modern, built in the 1920's after the 1905 earthquake (and destroyed many times before that by Moslem invaders, usually from the northwest (Afghanistan) as it was a particularly rich temple). The story, as I understand it, is that after Sati, the wife of Shiva, burst into flames in protest at an insult to her husband by her father, Shiva was so incensed on finding her corpse that he began a dance of destruction. Vishnu, not wanting the world to be destroyed, stopped him and in the process caused Sati's body to break into 51 pieces, falling all over India. Her left breast fell at Kangra and the temple worships that. People at the temple were again quite friendly and I again was the only foreigner. Lots of the offerings were of sweets, attracting wasps or hornets, which was a little disconcerting. A tree by the temple had scores of pieces of cloth tied to its branches. It was all quite interesting and colorful. I stayed till after dark, when they illuminated the temple with all sorts of bright colored lights.
I went back to the temple the next morning and enjoyed all the colorful activity. The bazaar was not as crowded on the way up as the day before, but was by the time I returned an hour or more later. I also checked out some of the very crowded pilgrim hostels near the temple and was glad I wasn't staying in them.. I left on a bus for Pathankot about 9:45 and we traveled through hilly country, arriving just before 1. I immediately caught a bus for Amritsar and we traveled through the level and fertile plains of the Punjab to Amritsar, arriving about 4:15. We passed agricultural fields and bustling towns on the way. In one town, Dinanagar, there was a religious procession with an elephant painted with white symbols, marchers dressed in yellow, and a bearded guru at the rear on a sort of chariot drawn by horses.
It was hot in Amritsar, maybe in the 90's. I think it's elevation is about 900 -1000 feet. At least that's what my altimeter showed. I took a cyclo-rickshaw to the Golden Temple, the main temple of the Sikhs. This temple is my favorite memory of my trip to India in 1979 and it was great to see that it is as wonderful as I remembered it. I had planned to stay in the pilgrim dormitories, as I did in 1979, but they were pretty grim, crowded and hot. There is a specific dormitory just for foreigners, with thin-mattresses on maybe 20 beds with no gaps between the beds, all in a small room.
I spent the end of the afternoon and early evening at the temple complex, an enormous place with the Golden Temple in the middle of a pool of water maybe 500 feet long on each side. It is reached by a causeway and there is wide, marble walkway all around the pool, with white buildings all around that. In fact, "Amritsar" means "Pool of Nectar," and there has been a Sikh temple here since the late 1500's. It was destroyed by Moslems in the 1760's, rebuilt, and then in the early 1800's gilded copper plates were added by Ranjit Singh, the great Sikh maharaja of the Punjab. The plates are on the second and third stories while the first story is made of white marble with colored stone inlays of flowers, birds and animals. The inside, too, is beautifully decorated, and the Sikh holy book is constantly read aloud there during the day while quite soothing music is played by nearby musicians. As I recall, there was one drummer, using a small drum, and two playing small keyboards. They play songs from the holy book. All around the complex are tall bearded Sikhs in turbans with long spears keeping watch. You have to remove your shoes, wash your feet and wear an orange scarf on your head, unless you have your own scarf or turban. There were thousands of people around. I've been told the Golden Temple averages 200,000 visitors a day. I crossed the causeway and visited the Golden Temple at about nightfall. It was much more crowded than I remembered from 1979, but I was able to go up into the second and third floors, while a white-bearded man on the first floor read from the book and the musicians played. At about 7 I ate in the communal dining hall, where all are offered free meals 24 hours a day. Sikhs recognize no caste distinctions and these communal meals, eaten on metal plates on the floor, with no precedence for people of high rank, is meant to symbolize the equality of all men. It was just dhal and chapattis, but it was filling. Afterward, I found a hotel nearby and then went back to the temple until about 10.
I went back the next morning about 7 and there were quite a few men bathing in the water, with lots more people walking or sitting or lying around. There is an enclosed area for women to bathe. In the plaza where the causeway begins three musicians were playing what I was told were songs of Sikh bravery. Two had very small drums while the other a stout, violin-type instrument. The marble becomes quite glaring in the middle of the day, and I spent some of that time in the museum, filled with paintings of bloody battles and tortures and Sikh martyrs. It seems the Sikh religion took quite a martial turn in the 17th century after repeated persecution by Moslems. They are still quite martial, and all around the temple are plaques commemorating Sikhs killed in battle in India's wars with Pakistan.
About 4 I left in a crowded jeep with 11 others to head to the border with Pakistan, about an hour's ride away. At sunset every day there is a border closing ceremony, with much pomp and cheering and with goose-stepping soldiers. It draws big crowds, seated in stadium-like bleachers, on both sides, with much cheering, waving of flags and dancing. It had the feel of a college football game and was great fun. At sunset the soldiers on each side lowered the two flags and slammed the border gates shut, with much strutting and marching both preceding and following. The soldiers managed to get their legs up to ridiculous heights while marching.
Back in Amritsar, I had dinner and then went to the Golden Temple to walk around and then watch the ceremony in which they remove the holy book from the Golden Temple and put it away for the night in the building called the Akal Tikhat near the end of the causeway. They do this with a golden palanquin and great ceremony. At the very end, the book, in a blue cloth, is taken from the palanquin on top of the head of a bearded, turbaned Sikh, carried up the stairs of the Akal Tikhat, and placed in a small room, which is locked. Afterward, I went into the Golden Temple and watched the singing, turbaned men inside carefully cleaning everything, including polishing the gold ornaments, sweeping floors, and cleaning windows. On the hard marble walkway around the pool hundreds of people were sleeping, and I suspect they spend the night there. The holy book is brought out each morning at 4 or 5 am and again taken on the golden palanquin into the Golden Temple. The Sikhs had 10 gurus, leaders of their religion, from 1469 to 1708, but the tenth guru prior to this death said there would be no more gurus, only the holy book would serve as their guru.
I went to the Golden Temple again the next morning to watch all the activity. It was a Saturday and much more crowded than the day before. After breakfast, I went to the nearby Jallianwala Bagh, where in 1919 British soldiers killed about 400 and injured about 1500 people peacefully protesting. This was a major event galvanizing the independence movement and there is now a memorial park and museum. In the afternoon I took a cyclo-rickshaw through the crowded streets of Amritsar to the Ram Bagh, the site of the former palace of Ranjit Singh, where there is a museum with dioramas with a noisy soundtrack of battle sounds. From there I took another cyclo-rickshaw to the Mata Temple, in homage to a woman born in 1923. It is a sort of maze in a concrete building, with brightly colored statues. There is a lifelike statue of the woman with glasses (which I first thought might be her), and it had dozens of women around it singing. From there I took another cyclo-rickshaw to the Sri Durgiana Temple, a sort of Hindu version of the Golden Temple, also surrounded by a pool of water, but not nearly as nice. Outside there were crowds of people celebrating Dussehra, with dancers in monkey costumes, with red gowns, and two little girls dressed up in beautiful traditional clothes. I think Dussehra celebrates the Ramayana story, so perhaps one represented Sita, Rama'a wife. It was all very colorful, with much banging of drums. These Hindu celebrations seem to be always a riot of activity and color. Back at the Golden Temple, I again stayed till they put the holy book away for the night. The Saturday night crowd was enormous, with very friendly people, many eager to talk to you.
I got there again about 7:30 or 8 the next morning (today), again with enormous crowds, even that early. I spent the morning there until about 9 or 9:30, talking in part to a particularly interesting man from Jammu, and then had breakfast before doing some errands and internet this afternoon.
really enjoy your fascinating blogs.
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