THE GOLDEN TEMPLE
ਹਰਿਮੰਦਰ ਸਾਹ
Hari Mandir Sâhib
We first want to talk about the main entertainment in Amristar; a temple made of gold.
It is a very touristic place, anybody can visit it, but it also very sacred to its inhabitant because it is the holiest shrine for the people belonging to Sikh religion. This temple was established in 1601 by Guru Arjan , the fifth guru of the Sikhs.
This Temple has a very interesting history:
This Temple has a very interesting history:
In the 17th and 18th century the temple was destroyed by the invading Moslem armies, and each time it was rebuilt. From 1767 onwards, the Sikhs became strong enough militarily to defend it and the Hari Mandir Sâhib was richly ornamented with marble sculptures, golden gilding, and large quantities of precious stones.
But in the half of 19th century, the Sikh empire fell under the British rule ,and at the time of independence in 1947 the Sikhs decided to stay within Hindu majority India.
On May the 31th 1984, it was invaded by the Indian army in the infamous "Operation Blue Star" to wipe out the Sikh extremists. A gunfire broke out and killed 83 soldiers and 492 civilians.
It was a massacre.
hey guys. I'm still a big fan of your blog, what with all the colour and pictures! think the presentation is great. I still think you should try have more content - are we going to see a bit of everything by the end? Remember you can just put little updates and thoughts on the blog at any time. For example, if you've just cooked yourself an Indian-style meal (Edwina?) then take a picture and describe it a little bit!
ReplyDeleteYou have more content than before, but I'm afraid copy-paste descriptions (re: Golden Temple) don't really count - and please cite your sources if you write a paragraph which isn't your own.