Hey friends, How are you doing?

I am back here with the second part of my journey. In my last post, I shared about my time at the Wagah Border and the Flag Lowering Ceremony held there between India and Pakistan soldiers and also gave you a brief introduction of the city. If you haven't checked it out yet, you can do that here

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Today, I am going to talk about my visit to the Golden Temple in the city of Amritsar.

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Golden Temple is the holiest shrine for the Sikhs. Harmandir Sahib is also popularly known as Golden temple, but a few people call it Darbar Sahib. Golden temple is one of the unique and famous places of Amritsar, or you can say that Golden Temple is the pride of Amritsar. The meaning of Harmandir Sahib is Temple of God. It is famous for its beauty and religious unity all over the world. This holy place is not only beautiful, but it is extraordinary even in historical terms.

Inner view Of Temple, This temple is made up of gold.

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In today's article, I will tell you a few facts about the golden temple that might surprise you.

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Maharaja Ranjit Singh covered it in gold in 1830 and took 162 kg of gold to do it. Back in the 90s, it was renovated with 500 kg of Gold. This renovation took four years from 1995 to 1999. The temple is all made of 24-karat gold, which is purer than the 22-karat gold.

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History of Golden Temple

For the construction of Golden Temple, the land was donated by Muslim Emperor Akbar. This temple was founded by a Muslim Saint named Sai Miya Mir in December 1588. The golden temple was damaged many times. It is believed that the Afghan attackers destroyed this temple in the 19th century. Then Maharaja Ranjit Singh helped in its construction again and had to lay the gold back on its dome. The Golden Temple was firstly made up of bricks and stones; later it was made up of white marble. When the temple was destroyed and when it remade, is all mentioned in the inscriptions present in the temple.

The people of all religions can come to this temple. There are four doors in the temple, and these four doors are made in the form of the unity of the four religions. According to a survey of BBC news that people should visit these places before death the Golden temple is on number six among the ten places in the world .

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Langar At Gurudwara

Langar is a term used in Sikhism for the community kitchen of Gurdwara where the free meal served to all the visitors who come in the Gurudwara, without distinction of caste, gender, religion, ethnicity or economic status. This free meal is always vegetarian. People sit on the floor in rows and eat food together, and this kitchen is maintained and serviced by Sikh community volunteers.
Golden Temple organizes the world's largest Langar. About one hundred thousand people eat langar here daily. But in the days of festivals, this number crosses the two hundred thousand mark.

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Unfortunately, I lost the opportunity to eat Langar because of the crowd. But I went to a local restaurant for food named as Kesar Dhaba. Amritsar is widely famous for their high calorie and spicy Punjabi food.

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Food At Kesar Dhaba

Kesar Da Dhaba is a very popular vegetarian Dhaba (roadside restaurant). That was the small restaurant which was selling some really delicious Dal (pulses), and Roti (Indian Bread) which I enjoyed heartily. This Dhaba was set up by Lala Kesar Mal who was a Punjabi Hindu in Sheikhupura, near Lahore in 1916. Lahore is a part of Pakistan, so they moved to Amritsar after the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947.

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Signature Dish Dal Makhani (Dal with butter)

Dal is cooked very slowly in the large steel cauldron from 4 a.m. to 1 PM. Salt, red chile powder, masala containing ghee, onion, turmeric, and asafetida is added just before serving.

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Dahi Bhalla

Dahi Bhalla is also known as Dahi Vada. Soak washed urad lentil overnight and grind it into a batter for the Bhalla. From this batter, we make Bhalla's for deep frying. The hot deep fried Bhalla's are first put in water and then transferred to thick beaten yogurt. 

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Phirni

They are also known for the creamy Phirni. Phirni is a traditional rice custard cooked with milk and served in earthen bowls.

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Gulab jamun

Gulab jamun is a milk-solid-based sweet dumpling. The milk solids, known as khoya. The dough is formed by this khoya and then shaped into small balls, and these little balls are deep-fried at a low temperature. These deep fried balls are soaked in a light sugar syrup flavored with rose water, green cardamom, kewra or saffron.

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The Rainbird Prays: O Lord, Grant your grace and bless me with the gift of the life of the soul.

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