Photo Essay: Amritsar’s Golden Jewel–you are my Taj!

Filed under Amritsar, Photo Essays by on July 7, 2011 at 5:16 am {4 comments}

What would make a fearless warrior fall to  his knees and drop his sword?

Love and God.

The Golden Temple (aka Harmandir Sahib) was my long-awaited India highlight; moreso than the Taj Mahal. In fact, the Golden Temple averages more visitors a day than the Taj itself! As the spiritual centre and pilgrimage spot for the fiercest-known warrior class in India– the Sikhs– the Golden Temple is a jewel to behold and the worship that evolves from it is something powerful! The temple is of gold and marble and is surrounded by a pool of water fed by the Ganges.

(above) Photo by Autum Kirgan

You can’t go into any Indian temple without first, taking off your shoes first.  At the Golden Temple however, you must also wash your feet (more…)

A cock show at the India-Pakistan Border

Filed under Amritsar by on July 4, 2011 at 1:03 am {4 comments}

The crowd of men were pressing in us from all sides.  Some were annoyed at us, pointing to the “women’s section”.

Sorry bhai. I shrugged my shoulders pretending to be an overly naïve foreigner. We had followed the momentum of the mass shoving queue quite by accident. Now we were wedged into the middle without a way out.

Being three foreign yoga chicks, shielding one blond-haired 10-year-old child (which Indian folk seem enthralled by), the men tried to keep a safe and respectful distance. Everyone was chest-to-back, but the boob-to-backing became inevitable. We were at the entrance of the (more…)

Love Letter #13: Where is life?

Filed under Amritsar, Love Letter Postcards by on July 2, 2011 at 3:50 am {2 comments}

Amritsar, India

Dear Love,

When I was at temple, I met a learned man who stopped and asked me, where I was going. He held out a notepad and asked me to tell him what I saw….

I read the line before me.

“Guru-ji, I hope I passed your test with my answer,” I said with a wink.

To which he responded smiling, “My dear girl, you did.”

Seek and Finding,


GRRRL
.
P.S. Happy Birthday. May you live by this.

What to see in Amritsar in 2.5 days?

Filed under Amritsar, Photo Essays by on June 29, 2011 at 5:09 am {4 comments}

I was finally entering “India” again, after a month-long sojourn into a world of Himalayan calm, yoga and Tibetan Buddhism (Dharamsala hardly feels like India). Was I ready to free fall back into the masala mania?

While the traveler in me was excited to get back on the explorer’s road; the solo gal in me was dreading it. Having found roots for a month in my yoga-family coccoon, I wasn’t thrilled with going back to solo-roughing it. Fortunately when you flow with the universe, it provides you with what you need; thankfully, it granted me friends who wanted to visit the next city on my list– Amritsar.

I inhaled the new landscape, watching our six hour drive go from Dharamsala’s plush mountain valleys to arid Punjabi farmland, bhangra beats and turban coiffed men on motorbikes. Well-paved roads, an organized city layout and a stunning jewel of a gudwara (the Golden (more…)

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