When: December 28, 2004

Where: Amritsar (“Pool of Nectar”), Punjab state, India – located 25 km from the border of Pakistan and on the Old Silk Route.

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What: The Golden Temple
Tito Dupret’s panorama depicts a place of stupendous beauty and sublime peacefulness – the Golden Temple – the most revered religious center in Sikhism. Originally, it was a small lake in a forest and has been a retreat since ancient times, where even the Buddha came to meditate.

Guru Nanak (1469-1539), founder of the Sikh religion, came to live by the lake and his followers continued to frequent the site after his death; over the centuries it became the primary sacred shrine of the Sikhs. The fifth Guru, Arjan, built the Temple of God, which was destroyed several times by the Moslems and rebuilt each time by the Sikhs.

The Golden Temple (Durbar Sahib to the Sikhs) is open to all visitors regardless of community, caste, or commitment to the Sikh religion. The only requirement is that you keep your head covered while inside

The sacred lake occupies an area of about 25,000 sq ft., is lined with marble steps and is fed by an underground spring. Pilgrims immerse themselves in the water as part of their visit to the temple - a symbolic cleansing of the soul. A white marble bridge leads to the two-storied marble Temple, centered on a platform in the lake and covered with gilded gold sheets inscribed with words from the sacred Granth Sahib.

The Holy Book of the Sikhs, the Granth Sahib, is housed within the Harmandir Sahib, which is the main building of the complex. This ancient text, a giant compendium of 3,500 hymns, is placed on a high dais under a bejewelled canopy.

Amritsar, the original name of first the ancient lake, then the temple complex, and still later the surrounding city, means "pool of ambrosial nectar."

Why: Although it is not on the World Heritage list of protected sites, Tito Dupret, who was traveling through the area, became captivated by the place: “The warm and peaceful feeling you can get in this place is so great that it makes the Golden Temple one of my favorite sites so far,” he writes.