Amritsar - part 2

Separating today into two halves, to avoid crashing on dodgy WiFi! After the Golden Temple, we were taken to the Jallianwala Bagh, the scene of the Amritsar massacre of 1919, when British troops were ordered to open fire on an unarmed gathering and killed around 1,600 people. Until recently, the site has been a rather dusty wasteland and the Indian government got contractors in to landscape it, to mixed reviews! Whilst the grass is welcome, the piped music takes away the opportunity for reflection. The monument itself was created in the 1960s and is the work of an American, Benjamin Polk.

Lunch in a local restaurant in the street below followed - as yet with no ill effects. Our kulcha bread, a local speciality, was cooked in the portable tandoori oven just outside.

Next up, the Partition Museum, telling the story of the partition of India at independence, and the death, destruction and mass migrations associated with it. A really excellent museum. No photography inside, so just one of the exterior below.

Our final stop was a visit to the daily ceremony held at sunset at the Wagah-Attari border between India and Pakistan. Both countries co-ordinate their activities with lots of nationalistic chanting and parading and upstaging…..a bit of a cross between the Haka, Trooping the Colour and the 12th! It was a relatively quiet day today, so the upper level of the arena wasn’t open and we were able to get in and out pretty easily. The soldiers in the background of the third and fourth pictures are Pakistani and standing in Pakistan, with their Indian counterparts closer to us and standing in India. The flags of each country are lowered at the end of the ceremony and the gates closed, the end to a fascinating day exploring Amritsar.