When I was a child, there was a South Asian security guard in the parking lot downstairs from our building who always wore a large turban. His deep black beard covered half of his face, revealing his brown skin and serious eyes. My mom called him a “Moluo Cha.” Ever since then, I found him scary whenever I saw him.
In India, I saw many “Moluo Chaos,” but as I grew up, I learned that this term carried a somewhat discriminatory connotation. As a child, I had somehow developed fear because of it, but after actually interacting with them, I realized that beneath their serious appearances were kind hearts.
They are followers of Sikhism.
Amritsar street ( @Amritsar, India )
What is Sikhism?
Sikhism was initially founded to reconcile the deeply conflicting Hinduism and Islam, while also opposing the Indian caste system. It promotes peace, gender equality, helping the poor and the weak, and believes in one God, primarily worshipping ten Gurus.
Sikh attire is not hard to recognize. They follow the “5 Ks”: wearing a long shirt (Kachhera), men keeping long beards and tying up their long hair (Kesh) with a turban, with a wooden comb (Kanga) hidden under the large turban. Sikhs never cut their hair in their lifetime because hair is considered a natural part of the body that should be cherished. They wear silver bracelets (Kara) to remind themselves to remember the teachings in everything they do, and they carry a short sword (Kirpan) at their waist to symbolize bravery.
Can you tell which ones are Sikhs? ( @Amritsar, India )
Amritsar, a border city in Punjab in northern India, is a sacred site of Sikhism, home to the famous Golden Temple, where about 90% of the people on the streets are Sikhs.
Outside the Sikh holy site Golden Temple ( @Amrirsar, India )
Entering a Sikh temple
Sikh temples (Gurdwaras) are mostly white in architecture. I’ve visited two Sikh temples in India—one is the most sacred Golden Temple in Amritsar, and the other is Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in New Delhi. Sikh temples, just as their teachings suggest, are fair and open to people of all religions, ethnicities, genders, and social statuses, but you must wear long pants, and both men and women must wear a head covering (hats are not allowed). The temple also provides free head coverings to borrow.
Typical white architecture of a Sikh temple ( @Amritsar, India )
Gurdwara Bangla Sahib in New Delhi ( @New Delhi, India )
Before entering a Sikh temple, you need to take off your shoes and store them in the temple’s shoe cabinet. First, wash your hands at the sink, step through the small pool at the entrance to wash your feet, and touch the threshold with your hand before entering the main hall. Usually, there is a place at the entrance to get free drinking water, and you can also receive free small sweets, like a welcome gift. Sikh temples play chants of scriptures that linger in the air, giving a sacred and peaceful feeling.
Washing feet in the small pool at the entrance of a Sikh temple ( @New Dehli, India )
Free water is handed out, and no one minds if some tourists fill their own bottles ( @Amritsar, India )
The small sweets are made of flour, butter, and sugar, and taste quite good ( @New Delhi, India )
There is a large pool in the Sikh temple where devotees touch or even bathe in the holy water (Holy Dip), but at the Golden Temple, I saw some kids treating it like a splash pool, and staff would shoo away some of the playful ones. There is also a separate area designated for women to bathe in the holy water.
The pool at the Sikh temple in New Delhi ( @New Delhi, India )
As soon as you walk into the Golden Temple, you see a very large pool ( @Amritsar, India )
Devotees bathing in the holy water ( @Amritsar, India )
A separate section reserved only for women to bathe in the holy water, so they don’t have to worry about their clothes getting wet and exposing themselves ( @Amritsar, India )
Women “lining up” to go in and bathe ( @Amritsar, India )
Sikh temples are always crowded with people. I guess a big reason is because they offer “free lunch.” Sikhism believes that people need to be full before they can pursue spiritual and religious fulfillment, so Sikh temples provide free food (called “Langar”) 24 hours a day. Whether you’re a tourist or a believer, a millionaire or a poor person, you can enjoy it. It’s said that the Golden Temple serves food to 50,000 people on average every day.
This is just the tip of the iceberg in the dining hall, with hundreds of people eating together ( @Amritsar, India )
At the Golden Temple, when you enter the dining hall (Community Kitchen), you systematically get your bowl and utensils, then “Indian-style” rush into the hall and sit down neatly in rows. The staff will distribute vegetarian food such as Indian flatbread (chapati), rice, lentil paste (daal), and dessert (kheel). After you finish, they’ll even ask if you want more, and the taste is really good. Sometimes, when the staff encounters foreign tourists, they’ll try their best to chat in the little English they know.
The Langar at the Golden Temple actually tastes better than restaurant food, especially that white dessert that tastes like tapioca pudding ( @Amritsar, India )
The Langar at the Sikh temple in New Delhi is like curry rice at a cha chaan teng (@Amritsar, India)
This little boy kept refilling my plate and chatted with me for a long time while others had already gone through two rounds (@Amritsar, India)
From serving dishes to clearing them, there’s a systematic assembly-line operation run by the staff (@Amritsar, India)
Aside from meals, Golden Temple also offers free accommodation at night. I saw many Indians lying on the temple corridor with just a blanket. But I didn’t get to try staying overnight in the temple.
I mentioned “free” quite a few times. I’m definitely not advocating going out of your way to eat free meals. All of this is supported by many donors and volunteers. Almost all the temple staff are volunteers who step up to fill any gaps they see. A Sikh explained to me that one reason for offering free services is to teach people gratitude. When you pay to eat at a restaurant, you’re the customer—you can complain about bad food or service. But when everything is free, even if it isn’t great, you have no right to complain. Instead, you should appreciate the kindness behind it.
We’ve all been taught that “there’s no such thing as a free lunch,” but after visiting a Sikh temple, you might start to believe that there are still good things in this world.
The most sacred Golden Temple
Even if you’ve never heard of Sikhism, you’ve probably heard of India’s Golden Temple, which many Sikh devotees make pilgrimages to. Walking around the pool takes at least ten to twenty minutes, and in the center is the iconic golden structure. There are always long queues from morning to night waiting to get in. I didn’t have the patience to wait in line, but watching everyone rush in from the outside was entertaining in its own way.
Using bamboo barriers to manage the queue (@Amritsar, India)
The moment the bamboo is removed, it’s like a horse race—everyone rushes in!! (@Amritsar, India)
Amritsar often has smog, so the Golden Temple during the day always looks hazy. But at night, the lighting makes the structure shine brilliantly. The Golden Temple is crowded during the day—when there are too many people and too much noise, it loses some of its sacred feel. At night, it’s much quieter, and the chanting in the background plus the cool temperature make it very peaceful.
The Golden Temple during the day (@Amritsar, India)
An unedited, true-to-life view of the Golden Temple in daylight and smog (@Amritsar, India)
The Golden Temple glowing golden at night (@Amritsar, India)
The Sikhs I met
I believe many people in Hong Kong rarely have the chance to interact with Sikhs. The only impression we might have, as mentioned earlier, is of people wearing turbans, having long beards, and often looking serious.
The host’s friend is a Sikh. That day, he was sent by the host to pick me up. The air pollution in India is severe, and I had a bad cough like I had tuberculosis. That friend was even more worried than I was. He immediately bought medicine and even said he’d take me to the hospital if I didn’t take it. Later, seeing that I was seriously ill, he even booked my train ticket to the next city for me.
The man in the white turban in the back is the host’s friend who took great care of me (disclaimer: although it was all guys, there was absolutely no harassment—sometimes we shouldn’t judge a place or ethnicity based on media reports and biases) (@Amritsar, India)
I lost my earring at the Golden Temple. A staff member who was sweeping happened to be nearby, so I casually asked if they’d seen it. To my surprise, this question attracted five or six Indians who gathered around to help. I told them it wasn’t an expensive earring and it was okay if they couldn’t find it, but the staff member insisted on mobilizing others to keep looking. Even though we didn’t find the earring in the end, they went all out to help with even this small matter.
Friendly staff at the Golden Temple (@Amritsar, India)
Every Sikh I met had a big heart hidden beneath a serious exterior. As the saying goes, don’t judge a book by its cover. Before truly getting to know a culture, race, or country, we have no right to judge.
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