The Golden Temple
The Sikh religion, founded by Nanak Dev, the first of
ten gurus, in the late 15th century, is a reformist faith that opposes
idol worship and the caste system, believes in a formless God and was
originally pacifist in nature. As a result of religious persecution
during the reign of the fanatical Muslim Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb,
the tenth guru, Gobind Singh (guruship 1675–1708), completely
transformed the Sikh community, turning it into a military order
(the Khalsa) and giving Sikhs a distinctive political and personal
identity, including the wearing of the five symbols, the best known of
which is a ceremonial knife (the kirpan). He also finalized the
Sikh holy book (the Guru Granth Sahib) and transferred authority
from the succession of gurus to the Khalsa as a whole. Sikh men are
readily identified by their distinctive turbans (dastar) and
full beards. Today the Sikh religion has an estimated 26 million
adherents spread around the world, though the great majority live
in the Indian state of Punjab
The sikh’s holiest shrine is the Golden Temple, set in the heart
of the rather unlovely city of Amritsar. The original structure built by
the fifth guru in the 1590s was virtually destroyed by Afghan invaders
in 1761. The structure we see today was begun in 1764, but owes much
of its current splendor to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who sponsored its
reconstruction and decoration after recapturing Amritsar in 1802.
The relatively small temple is set in the center of a large tank of
water (“the pool of nectar”), itself surrounded by a marble
walkway and shielded from the city by a two story enclosure pierced
by four gates.
Photo taken: February 2, 2008
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