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Kar sewa, photo gallery & slide show: Also
known as the Harmandir, the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab, is
the Sikh faith's holiest shrine, its most important Gurudwara and
home to the original copy of the Guru Granth Sahib. This holy book
is considered as the last Sikh Guru (and therefore has the status
of a living person), containing the collected wisdom of all previous
human Sikh Gurus.
On the 25th of March 2004 an historic event began at Amritsar's Golden
Temple, a "kar sewa" (literally meaning "to do service")
for the cleaning of the temple's sacred pool, or Sardar Sarovar, for
the first time in 20 years. Sikh men, women and children from all
over India and across the globe turned up in lakhs (1 lakh = 100,000)
for the Kar Sewa, eager to participate in an event that may not recur
for another 50 years, as the new water treatment plant to be installed
should dramatically reduce the silting of the pool. Kar sewa is considered
an important religious duty by Sikhs, and in this spirit of purity
no machines are permitted for the cleaning inside the temple, the
mud is carried from the holy tank and out of the temple by volunteers,
then transported from the site by tractor trailers. The first Kar
Sewa took place in 1923, another 50 years later 1973. The last tank
cleaning was 1984 after Operation Bluestar. |
