The
Golden Temple is the ultimate Sikh pilgrimage. The
Harmandir Sahib, as it is traditionally known, actually
means the temple of Hari or the Supreme God. Also
known as the Darbar Sahib, the stupendous, architectural
phenomena is located at the city of Amritsar. The
temple's exterior is gold-plated and the structure
stands in the middle of a square tank. There is
a causeway across the Pool of Nectar to reach the
Temple. The shrine is symbolical of the doctrines
of Sikhism. It also represents the magnificent strength
of all the Sikhs. The amazing thing about Harmandir
Sahib is that it has doorways on all four sides,
meant to be open for the people of the all four
castes. All over the, the Sikhs always look forward
to visit to the magnificent temple and offer prayers
at the Harmandir Sahib.
 Guru
Arjan Dev, the fifth. master, who came to the spiritual
throne in 1581, felt from the growing popularity
of the shrine as a pilgrim center the need to have
the tank paved on the four sides and the steps of
Hari Mandir bricked. The devotees joined to construct
the temple, which would be lived in during the everyday
life, where the infinite mystery would be revealed
to those who may want to see. Already, however,
the demand to create a paradise on earth became
urgent, from the vision of Arjan Dev, of many simple
hearts coming, with dipped eyes over joined hands,
to pray and touch the holy water on their foreheads.
So this Guru had the structure of the Hari Mandir
planned in such a way that the outsight, might afford
the insight. The present causeway leading to the
Hari Mandir was then designed, with the rectangular
shape of the circumambulatory walk ending at the
gateway, from which the path to Reality began. And
to combine, symbolically, the noblest truth of Islam
about One God with the faith in the Hindu God Hari
and his many incarnations, the Muslim divine, Mian
Mir of Lahore, is said to have been invited by Guru
Arjan Dev to lay the foundation stone of the temple
in A.D. 1588. The structure of the shrine also mixed
the rectangular form of the Hindu temple with the
dome and minarets of the Muslims
Amritsar is an institution by itself. And the Golden
Temple is the cradle of Amritsar with the city growing
around it nurtured by its divine sanctity. The Golden
Temple stands there in simple majesty, the gilded
splendor of its paneling, dome and minarets shining
in the morning light, silhouetted softly in the
water and etched gently across the city escape.
For the Sikh community the Harmandir Sahib Gurdwara
Golden Temple is the final spiritual "vision,"
journey's end or beginning and, for every other
community too, it is a shrine to be visited.
 JALLIANVALA
BAGH MASSACRE, involved the killing of hundreds
of unarmed, defenceless Indians by a senior British
militry officer, took place on 13 April 1919 in
the heart of Amritsar, the holiest city of the Sikhs,
on a day sacred to them as the birth anniversary
of the Khalsa. Jallianvala Bagh,. a garden belonging
to the Jalla, derives name from that of the owners
of this piece of land in Sikh times. It was then
the property the family of Sardar Himmat Singh (d.1829),
a noble in the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780-1839),
who originally came from the village of Jalla, now
in Fatehgarh Sahib district of the Punjab. The family
were collectively known as Jallhevale or simply
Jallhe or Jalle, although their principal seat later
became Alavarpur in Jalandhar district. The site,
once a garden or garden house, was in 1919 an uneven
and unoccupied space, an irregular quadrangle, indifferently
walled, approximately 225 x 180 metres which was
used more as a dumping ground. |
