INDIA: Tens of thousands of Sikhs in colourful turbans carrying swords and spears and their reverentially veiled women marked the 400th anniversary of the installation of Sikhism's scriptures in the Golden Temple, their holiest shrine in the northern Indian city of Amritsar yesterday, writes Rahul Bedi in New Delhi
Devotees re-enacted a two-mile walk by the fifth Sikh Guru Arjan Dev from a small shrine in the teeming city exactly four centuries ago to the Golden Temple to install the Guru Granth Sahib, considered the living Guru and the supreme spiritual authority for over 25 million Sikhs worldwide.
The Granth contains verses praising God, stresses meditation and lists disciplines for the soul's growth and for salvation. It was ordained as the embodiment of the religion's faith by the 10th and last Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh who died in 1708.
Temple priests carried the holy book in an elaborate gold palanquin weighing 30 lbs adorned with marigolds and jasmine through packed streets lined with gold and silver buntings and flags in the Sikh colours of saffron and blue to the accompaniment of hymns.
The solemn procession, escorted by a devotee fanning the scriptures with an elaborate whisk of yak hair, installed the Granth Sahib inside Harimandir Sahib, the temple's white marble sanctum sanctorum set in the middle of a large tank of water that believers consider the nectar of immortality.
But an as yet unresolved controversy over whether the holy book installed in the Golden Temple is genuine, temporarily marred the run-up to the celebrations.
Few, however, involved themselves with the ecumenical debate, as thousands took a dip in the holy water to wash away their sins while others sat on the marble floor with their hands folded in prayer.
Numerous others enjoyed the free food that is offered daily by the temple as balladeers sang hymns and priests deafeningly relayed readings from the scriptures over loudspeakers.
"Visiting the Golden Temple revives memories of our Gurus and reviatilises all Sikhs spiritually," Gurmeet Singh Virdhi of the UK said. It is an uplifting experience that no other place can duplicate, he added.
"All my life I have waited to see and experience the Golden Temple. Now I can die peacefully," Prakash Singh from neighbouring Pakistan said. About 3.5 million Sikhs are expected to participate in the five-day anniversary celebrations that end later this week, temple officials said.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, India's first Sikh prime minister, was presented a robe of honor by the temple's head priest during his early morning visit.
Singh grew up in Amritsar 240 miles north of New Delhi, to where his parents migrated from Pakistan after independence 57 years ago.
Singh's visit was politically important for his Congress party that wants to end its adversarial relationship with the Sikh community after the army attacked the Temple complex in 1984 to evict Sikh separatists holed up inside.