Harmandir Sahib | American Turban

"The Golden Temple During the Day." (Adam Perez | Huffington Post)

President Obama to bypass Sikh holiest site once again

January 23, 2015 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

On his state visit to India this week, President Barack Obama is not scheduled to make a visit to Harmandir Sahib (aka the Golden Temple), barring any unexpected developments. As he partakes in India’s Republic Day festivities in India’s capital, his itinerary seems to be focused on solidifying the business/political relationship between the US and India. As reported in the Washington Post: Officials said Obama and Modi are expected to conduct talks around the business climate, trade, climate change, Afghanistan and terrorism. […]

Categories: Events, Politics • Tags: Ami Bera, Amritsar, Barack Obama, Darbar Sahib, Golden Temple, Harmandir Sahib, Joe Crowley

"1984: 29 Years On, Are We Any Better As A Nation?" (Source: India Resists)

Remembering the 1984 Sikh genocide

November 1, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Each year, the end of October is met with heavy hearts for Sikhs around the world, as we commemorate the organized genocide against Sikhs in Delhi and across India in response to the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards on October 31, 1984. Beant Singh and Satwant Singh shot the Indian Prime Minister dead in retaliation to her ordering of the attack on Sikhism’s central shrine, the Darbar Sahib (aka the Golden Temple) only six months before, which […]

Categories: 1984 • Tags: anti-Sikh progroms, anti-Sikh riots, Beant Singh, Delhi, Harmandir Sahib, India, Indira Gandhi, New Delhi, Satwant Singh, Sikh genocide

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U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill lay a wreath at the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi in New Delhi on July 23. Gandhi's granddaughter, Tara Gandhi, is at right. (Source: Deccan Chronicle)

The Veep visits India

July 24, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

As Vice President Joe Biden visits India this week, I was reminded of President Barack Obama’s visit to India in late 2010, in which he avoided visiting the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, Punjab, a site which reportedly draws up to a hundred thousand of visitors per day, not including Presidents of the United States. For a well-known location which has such appeal to Sikhs and non-Sikhs alike and to residents of and visitors to India, it was noteworthy that […]

Categories: 1984, Politics • Tags: 1984, 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Amritsar, anti-Sikh pogroms, Barack Obama, Darbar Sahib, drug trade, drugs, Golden Temple, Harmandir Sahib, Joe Biden, Mahatma Gandhi, November 1984, United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, USCIRF, Vice President of the United States

"Nazar Kooner addresses the gathering at the Sikh temple on South P Street with Bakersfield Mayor Harvey Hall and sister-city Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora of Amritsar to his left earlier this month in Bakersfield." (source: Bakersfield Californian)

Mayor of Amritsar is impressed with Bakersfield, California

April 30, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

In August 2011, the city of Bakersfield, California, announced a “sister-city” association with Amritsar, Punjab, India, the center of the Sikh faith and home to Darbar Sahib (aka the Golden Temple, Sikhism’s central Gurdwara). Recently, the Mayor of Amritsar visited Bakersfield, an unassuming city 100 miles north of Los Angeles that contains a large Sikh population and is economically based on the agricultural industry: Amritsar, Mayor Bakshi Ram Arora told the Hindustan Times, is a far cry from the squeaky […]

Categories: Politics, News Bits • Tags: India, California, Amritsar, Harmandir Sahib, Darbar Sahib, Bakersfield, Nazar Kooner, Harvey Hall, Bakshi Ram Arora, sister-city

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A hitchhiker’s guide to Darbar Sahib

February 14, 2013 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

For Sikhs around the world, Darbar Sahib, the center of the Sikh faith in Amritsar, India, is held in sacred esteem. Also known as Harmandir Sahib or as the Golden Temple, Sikhs around the world endeavor to visit this place constructed in the early 17th century by Guru Arjan. Such is the devotion of Sikhs to this place that in the 19th century, the Sikh king, Maharaja Ranjit Singh, gilded the upper walls of the structure in gold. After its […]

Categories: Interfaith, Sikhism • Tags: Adam Pervez, Angela Dollar, Captain Stephen Phillips, Carolyn O'Donnell, Darbar Sahib, Golden Temple, GT1588, Harmandir Sahib, Huffington Post, John Busteed Ireland, Wanderlust and Lipstick

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Picture of the Day: Gurpurab of Guru Ram Das in Amritsar, India

October 10, 2012 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

Yesterday, Sikhs around the world celebrated the birth anniversary of the fourth Guru of the Sikhs, Guru Ram Das (1534-1581). Born in Lahore in present-day Pakistan, Guru Ram Das’ contributions to the Sikh faith are numerous, including founding the city of Ramdaspur, which would later be called Amritsar and become the site of Harmandir Sahib (aka the Golden Temple), constructed by the fifth Guru, Guru Arjan.

Categories: Picture of the Day • Tags: Amritsar, Golden Temple, Guru Arjan, Guru Ram Das, Harmandir Sahib, Lahore, Ramdaspur

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Picture of the Day: Houston, TX Sikhs give blood in memory of 1984

June 21, 2012 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The Sikh Center of Gulf Coast Area in Houston, Texas holds an annual blood drive in June to commemorate the events of 1984 in India: “This blood drive has been going on for the last 10 to 15 years,” explained Harjit Singh Galhotra, the Secretary of the Sikh National Center, “to remember those who not only perished in the Indian Army’s attack on the Golden Temple in Amritsar in June 1984 but all the thousands who subsequently died in the […]

Categories: 1984, Picture of the Day • Tags: Amritsar, Darbar Sahib, Golden Temple, Harmandir Sahib, Houston, Sikh Center of Gulf Coast Area, Texas

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Picture of the Day: The Wonder of Darbar Sahib

June 1, 2012 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

The above photo of Darbar Sahib (Sikhism’s holiest shrine, also known as Harmandir Sahib or the Golden Temple) comes from photographer Ratul Upadhyay who describes this image thus: A Work of Art is not a living thing, that walks or runs. But the making of a life, that which gives you a reaction, certainly is. To some it is the wonder of man’s fingers, to some it is the wonder of the mind, to some it is the wonder of […]

Categories: 1984, Picture of the Day • Tags: Amritsar, Darbar Sahib, Golden Temple, Harmandir Sahib, National Sikh Youth Federation, NSYF, Operation Blue Star, Ratul Upadhyay, United Kingdom

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Lawsuit against Jay Leno over Golden Temple remark to be dismissed

May 24, 2012 by Rupinder Mohan Singh

You may recall the news of a Sikh physician in Bakersfield, California who initiated a lawsuit against Jay Leno over the comedian’s use of a picture of Darbar Sahib (also known as the Golden Temple, Sikhism’s central shrine in Amritsar, India) as part of a joke on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. The plaintiff has now requested that the lawsuit be dismissed: The joke, which was broadcast on January 9, shows the homes of the GOP candidates including Newt […]

Categories: News Bits • Tags: Amritsar, Bakersfield, California, Darbar Sahib, Harmandir Sahib, Jay Leno, Mitt Romney, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno