I got nothing going in Amritsar. I got in yesterday. I went straight for the Golden Temple. The temp outside was 41C. That’s 106 for us Americans. I don’t know much about Sikhs- ok I admit it I don’t know anything about Sikhs- but I decided to go see their holiest temple anyway. I could have lived without it.

Sure- it was a temple, it was golden and there were plenty of Sikhs around, but in reality what’s that to me? I was feeling sick, it was 106 degrees and I was walking around an enormous marble complex barefoot and with my head covered. Do you know how hot marble gets in the sun? Dang HOT! REAL HOT!

I was wandering around with a scarf on my head- sweating my fat rolls off, hopping from foot to foot trying to keep from getting crispy feet wondering why nearly every other religion (except Christianity) have you take off your shoes before you enter a place of worship. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea- but perhaps some more careful thought could be put into the whole marble floor- outside courtyard 105 degrees materials and structure design.

What I learned about Sikhs-It is some kind of mixture between Hinduism and Islam.
It seems neither Hindus nor Muslims like them so much on account of the whole mixing up of the religions and everyone keeps killing them.
It was started in this area in the 1400s.
The men wear turbans or topknots where they wrap up their hair, which for some reason I’m assuming is very long.
The men all have beards.
The men traditionally wear white shalwar kamis and a knife on a shoulder strap as part of their dress.
The women look like everyone else- they wear shalwar kamis.
Sikhs say they invented the shalwar kamis and everyone just took it up because of it’s simplicity, comfort and style.
The Sikh men here in town have given me the impression that they are gentile, non pushy kind people.
I thought I heard before I came they are known as great warriors- historically.

I think I’ll do more research on Sikh people- not because I loved the temple, but because the people seem to be very kind. The temple provides free food and shelter for travelers and pilgrims. It seemed very organized and clean. Everyone was kind while I was there- but of course there was a lot of staring and nudging me out of the way (lots of people, but it’s India, there are lots of people everywhere).

It could be I wasn’t so impressed because I was tired and not feeling well, but I don’t think so. I was feeling the same wayat the Taj and I really loved it. I think it’s the Hindu thing that throws me off- too many gods confuse me. I’m just a simple monotheist.

After a short time in the temple, I looked around at some of the shops- thought about buying a knife but then figured I had enough knives laying around already. I went back to the hotel for a nap.

I went to the Pakistani-Indian boarder in the evening. Now that was fun. When I first heard people talking about this I thought that they were just going to look at the border and that sounded silly. When India and Pakistan were divided they divided straight down the middle of Punjab state. Things aren’t so different on the other side.

But I was wrong; it’s not just the boarder. It’s a show- it’s a dance off- it’s a national pep rally -it’s a nightly ceremony of showing off and stomping around and cheering that made me glad I came to Amritsar.
More on that in the next blog.