ALPHABET TRAVEL CHALLENGE
Golden Temple of Amritsar: A Beacon For Sikhs Around The World
A to Z of my favorite travel destinations — G is for Golden Temple
The Golden Temple or Harmandir Sahib had been on my bucket list for years after I first learned about it in the 1980s. It was first established in the 16th century and is the holiest site in the Sikh religion. I wanted to see it at sundown for an even more spiritual experience.
I first heard about the temple in the mid-1980s when I was a radio news announcer and had read about an attack on the temple by the Indian army. The raid happened during one of the holiest Sikh holidays in 1984.
Soldiers moved in to try to arrest a suspected terrorist who was hiding inside. An estimated one-thousand soldiers and civilians died in the conflict. Many of those civilians were pilgrims who gathered at the holy temple for the holiday.
A few months later, two of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s Sikh bodyguards assassinated her in retaliation for the attack.
