1983 India: Amritsar (11/11/1983)

Friday, November 11, 1983
I stayed overnight at the Hotel Continental Guest House. I believe it was a hotel here where I heard scurrying across the floor of the room, and spotted a rat. The rat ran into the bathroom, so I shut the bathroom door and hoped not to have to use the room until the morning. In the meantime, I got into the bed and brought the sheet up over my head and tucked it all the way around the mattress.

(The next morning I slowly opened the bathroom door, but there was no rat. I first flushed water to make sure it wasn't down the toilet drain! There were plenty of holes in the walls for it to escape, thank goodness!)

I was cautioned about visiting Amritsar, since Sikh militants were rumored to be hiding in the Golden Temple. I reasoned that no violence would be done in a religious facility. However, I did see submachine guns being carried in the temple compound, and it turned out that the government would raid the Golden Temple seven months later.
It was while jostling through the crowds of people and cows here that I realized how easily those crowds of people could turn against someone like me.

Gurdwara Baba Atal Rai tower

The Gurdwara Baba Atal Rai tower (1778-1784) was built to commemorate Baba Atal Rai, the son of Guru Hargobind, who died at nine years of age, thus the tower is nine stories tall.

Pool at the Gurdwara Baba Atal Rai tower

Harmandir Sahib/House of God or the Golden Temple complex

Harmandir Sahib/House of God or the Golden Temple (1588-1604, rebuilt 1764) is the holiest temple for the Sikh religion. It is meant to be open to men and women from all religions, as indicated by entrances on four sides.

Harmandir Sahib with causeway to the entrance arch

Musicians

Marble inscribing

Entrance causeway

View from the south

Jallianwala Bagh memorial

Jallianwala Bagh is a garden established in 1951 to commemorate the Massacre of 1919 at that location, when the skittish British opened fire on crowds gathered partly in non-violent protest and partly in celebration of the Punjab New Year.

Jallianwala Bagh/Garden

Depart Amritsar 13:55 delayed 14:20.
Arrive New Delhi 17:00.
Stayed with the Ls.

Next: Varanasi.