I must admit, I had no idea why the Taj Mahal was built until I arrived at the gates. And in case you're like me, it was built back in 1632 by emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife. It took 22 years and several thousand tonnes of white marble to build. It looks exactly as one would imagine. No bigger or smaller than pictures make it out to be. We arrived around 9am to the grounds. It is almost impossible to see the palace from outside the gates unless you are high up in a building. The palace is walled on 3 sides, with the back looking out on a river. From the entrance of the gates, the Taj looks quite majestic, as intended. The early morning sun and fog made it glow and look like it was floating in some way. The Taj is perfectly symmetrical, with a mosque and a guesthouse on either side, completely identical in construction.
After slipping on out cloth booties over our shoes to protect the marble floors, we got to see the Taj Mahal right up close. There are thousands of tedious stone gem designs inlaid in the walls and floor of the Taj. The emperor cut off the thumbs or whole hands of the artists who worked on the building so they would not be able to recreate the same beautiful work for someone else. Shah Jahan buried his wife inside the Taj and later decided he would build another Mahal for himself across the river, this time in black marble. His son thought he was spending too much money and exiled him to the Agra Fort where he stayed until his death. From his room in the fort, he could see the Taj Mahal and even put diamonds in the ceiling so he could see its reflection when he lied down.
This is what we toured next, the Agra Fort. It is a huge fort 2.5kms away from the Taj. We spent 2 hours touring only a quarter fort. It was mostly built by the grandfather of Shah Jahan, Akbar the Great, but many of the buildings inside the fortress were built by Shah Jahan during his imprisonment. It seemed as though many of the buildings were used to house the many concubines of the rulers. 5,000 of them to be exact.
Our next stop was the town of Amritsar. Located less than 30 kms away from the Pakistan border, we were in the far northwest reaches of India, in the state of Punjab. We headed to the Wagha Border for 5pm, when the border closing ceremony was supposed to start. There must have been close to two thousand people on the India side alone. Probably close to the same amount on the Pakistan side. Each side had grandstands surrounding the road especially for these daily ceremonies. For an hour, there was music playing and women and children running up and down the road with the Indian flag followed by dancing. Then at 6, the official ceremony began. Indian and Pakistani officers wearing Spartan-like helmets marched, yelled, and blew the trumpet on either side of the gates. Their style of march was different than the sharp and concise movements of the western military. Their march included the occasional high kick and ended in an aggressive and somewhat spastic side step. Shouts of "Hindustan!" and "Pakistan!" could be heard from either side respectively. On the India side, there was a man oddly dressed in a white jumpsuit leading the soldiers and the crowd in cheers. Finally, after a lot of pomp and circumstance, the gates were opened, hands were shaken, and the flags were lowered. And this happens every single day.
The next morning, we checked out the Golden Temple. I found wikipedia explains it better than I could, "The Golden Temple is considered holy by Sikhs because the eternal guru of Sikhism, the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, is always present inside it and its construction was mainly intended to build a place of worship for men and women from all walks of life and all religion to come and worship God equally." We had to remove our shoes and cover our heads with something other than a hat. As we entered the area surrounding the temple, we has to rinse our feet in a small pool.
The temple itself is situated in the middle of a holy water pond. The whole area is encased by a building that forms a large square around the pond. The floor was white marble inlaid with various designs. The marble formed steps into the pond where men were taking baths. We crossed the bridge to the temple to see inside. It was a long wait for a very brief walk through the small and crowded temple. Worshipers bought food for offering at a stand, brought it to the temple to be blessed and left it there, then picked up the blessed food on the way back and ate it. After walking through the temple, we walked around the back and worshipers were scooping up holy water from the pond with their hands, drinking it, then putting the remainder on their head. This was the same holy water that people were bathing in, and that we saw giant goldfish swimming around in. I think the more I learn about different religions, the less I understand them.
We are now in Dharamsala, on the western edge of the Himalayas. It is where the Tibetan exile was moved to in 1960 after the 14th Dalai Lama originally established it in another town in 1959. We had a 6 hour drive from Amritsar that was far from pleasant. Our driver didn't seem pleased about having the task of driving us. He drove like he was in Grand Theft Auto, weaving in and out of traffic. I think I almost vomited 14 times and brushed death about 16 times. And that was all before we reached the actual mountains. He took the sharp twists and turns at 80 km/h, passing cars, buses, and rickshaws... and the cow having a nap along the curb. Once we arrived in lower Dharamsala, he stopped and refused to drive us the extra 6kms to Bhagsu in upper Dharamsala here our hotel was located. After a phone call to the hotel back in Amritsar that hired him and a few grumblings in Punjab, he sped off again. We reached our hotel and I could finally unclench my jaw and feel my shoulders slowly unwind.
All was forgotten once we got to our room and checked out the view. We're a couple thousand feet in the air and can see the snowy tops of the Himalayas. We're surrounded by dark green forests and the air is chilled. It's the first time I can say I've been cold in the last 3 months, but it's incredibly refreshing.
After slipping on out cloth booties over our shoes to protect the marble floors, we got to see the Taj Mahal right up close. There are thousands of tedious stone gem designs inlaid in the walls and floor of the Taj. The emperor cut off the thumbs or whole hands of the artists who worked on the building so they would not be able to recreate the same beautiful work for someone else. Shah Jahan buried his wife inside the Taj and later decided he would build another Mahal for himself across the river, this time in black marble. His son thought he was spending too much money and exiled him to the Agra Fort where he stayed until his death. From his room in the fort, he could see the Taj Mahal and even put diamonds in the ceiling so he could see its reflection when he lied down.
This is what we toured next, the Agra Fort. It is a huge fort 2.5kms away from the Taj. We spent 2 hours touring only a quarter fort. It was mostly built by the grandfather of Shah Jahan, Akbar the Great, but many of the buildings inside the fortress were built by Shah Jahan during his imprisonment. It seemed as though many of the buildings were used to house the many concubines of the rulers. 5,000 of them to be exact.
Our next stop was the town of Amritsar. Located less than 30 kms away from the Pakistan border, we were in the far northwest reaches of India, in the state of Punjab. We headed to the Wagha Border for 5pm, when the border closing ceremony was supposed to start. There must have been close to two thousand people on the India side alone. Probably close to the same amount on the Pakistan side. Each side had grandstands surrounding the road especially for these daily ceremonies. For an hour, there was music playing and women and children running up and down the road with the Indian flag followed by dancing. Then at 6, the official ceremony began. Indian and Pakistani officers wearing Spartan-like helmets marched, yelled, and blew the trumpet on either side of the gates. Their style of march was different than the sharp and concise movements of the western military. Their march included the occasional high kick and ended in an aggressive and somewhat spastic side step. Shouts of "Hindustan!" and "Pakistan!" could be heard from either side respectively. On the India side, there was a man oddly dressed in a white jumpsuit leading the soldiers and the crowd in cheers. Finally, after a lot of pomp and circumstance, the gates were opened, hands were shaken, and the flags were lowered. And this happens every single day.
The next morning, we checked out the Golden Temple. I found wikipedia explains it better than I could, "The Golden Temple is considered holy by Sikhs because the eternal guru of Sikhism, the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, is always present inside it and its construction was mainly intended to build a place of worship for men and women from all walks of life and all religion to come and worship God equally." We had to remove our shoes and cover our heads with something other than a hat. As we entered the area surrounding the temple, we has to rinse our feet in a small pool.
The temple itself is situated in the middle of a holy water pond. The whole area is encased by a building that forms a large square around the pond. The floor was white marble inlaid with various designs. The marble formed steps into the pond where men were taking baths. We crossed the bridge to the temple to see inside. It was a long wait for a very brief walk through the small and crowded temple. Worshipers bought food for offering at a stand, brought it to the temple to be blessed and left it there, then picked up the blessed food on the way back and ate it. After walking through the temple, we walked around the back and worshipers were scooping up holy water from the pond with their hands, drinking it, then putting the remainder on their head. This was the same holy water that people were bathing in, and that we saw giant goldfish swimming around in. I think the more I learn about different religions, the less I understand them.
We are now in Dharamsala, on the western edge of the Himalayas. It is where the Tibetan exile was moved to in 1960 after the 14th Dalai Lama originally established it in another town in 1959. We had a 6 hour drive from Amritsar that was far from pleasant. Our driver didn't seem pleased about having the task of driving us. He drove like he was in Grand Theft Auto, weaving in and out of traffic. I think I almost vomited 14 times and brushed death about 16 times. And that was all before we reached the actual mountains. He took the sharp twists and turns at 80 km/h, passing cars, buses, and rickshaws... and the cow having a nap along the curb. Once we arrived in lower Dharamsala, he stopped and refused to drive us the extra 6kms to Bhagsu in upper Dharamsala here our hotel was located. After a phone call to the hotel back in Amritsar that hired him and a few grumblings in Punjab, he sped off again. We reached our hotel and I could finally unclench my jaw and feel my shoulders slowly unwind.
All was forgotten once we got to our room and checked out the view. We're a couple thousand feet in the air and can see the snowy tops of the Himalayas. We're surrounded by dark green forests and the air is chilled. It's the first time I can say I've been cold in the last 3 months, but it's incredibly refreshing.
John Says:
ReplyDeleteGreat description!
Are you allowed to touch the goldfish?