Inside the Guru’s kitchen
Guru Ka Langar is a community kitchen run in the name of the Guru. Langar is the term used in the Sikh religion for common kitchen/canteen where food is served in a gurdwara to all the visitors regardless of faith, religion or background, for free.
In November 2014 I visited the Golden Temple where lies one of the largest and most spectacular free food dining hall – Guru Ka Langar. Also known as Harmandir Sahib, the Golden Temple is located in Amritsar, a town in the Indian Sikh state of Punjab, close to Pakistan borders. This place feeds more than 30.000 people every day, but the number becomes almost double on special occasions. Daal, vegetables, rice, chapatis and even dessert are being served endlessly 24 hours a day. Huge pans boil thousands of liters of water, giant spoon stir sauces, chillies are being added with shovels. The huge fires are being kept alight with gas cylinders to convert the tons of wheat, daal, rice, sugar and milk every day. The fresh vegetables are being cut, sliced and shredded by groups of volunteers sitting in circles around piles of onions, garlic, potatoes, chillies and pumpkins.
Food is being served and utensils washed entirely with military precision by about 300 volunteers named “sewards”. The halls can host up to 3000 visitors on a single round. Once they enter and take place on the mats, the “sewards” bring the food dishing it up from metal buckets. All participants sit on the floor, regardless of caste, status, wealth or creed, powerfully symbolizing the central Sikh doctrine of the equality of all people.
At the end of the meal the guests hand out the plates to a team, that empties the leftovers in appropriate vessels. The dirty plates pass from hand to hand to arrive in the large washing up area where hundreds people in a series of cycles do the dishes in separate basins.
The practice of Langar was started when Sikhism’s founder Guru Nanak fed hungry holy men ensuring that nobody goes hungry when one has come to the sanctum sanctorum of the gurudwara. The Third Guru Amar Das developed the concept establishing the principle of equality between all people of the world regardless of religion, caste, age, gender or social status.
Inside the Guru’s kitchen
Guru Ka Langar is a community kitchen run in the name of the Guru. Langar is the term used in the Sikh religion for common kitchen/canteen where food is served in a gurdwara to all the visitors regardless of faith, religion or background, for free.
In November 2014 I visited the Golden Temple where lies one of the largest and most spectacular free food dining hall – Guru Ka Langar. Also known as Harmandir Sahib, the Golden Temple is located in Amritsar, a town in the Indian Sikh state of Punjab, close to Pakistan borders. This place feeds more than 30.000 people every day, but the number becomes almost double on special occasions. Daal, vegetables, rice, chapatis and even dessert are being served endlessly 24 hours a day. Huge pans boil thousands of liters of water, giant spoon stir sauces, chillies are being added with shovels. The huge fires are being kept alight with gas cylinders to convert the tons of wheat, daal, rice, sugar and milk every day. The fresh vegetables are being cut, sliced and shredded by groups of volunteers sitting in circles around piles of onions, garlic, potatoes, chillies and pumpkins.
Food is being served and utensils washed entirely with military precision by about 300 volunteers named “sewards”. The halls can host up to 3000 visitors on a single round. Once they enter and take place on the mats, the “sewards” bring the food dishing it up from metal buckets. All participants sit on the floor, regardless of caste, status, wealth or creed, powerfully symbolizing the central Sikh doctrine of the equality of all people.
At the end of the meal the guests hand out the plates to a team, that empties the leftovers in appropriate vessels. The dirty plates pass from hand to hand to arrive in the large washing up area where hundreds people in a series of cycles do the dishes in separate basins.
The practice of Langar was started when Sikhism’s founder Guru Nanak fed hungry holy men ensuring that nobody goes hungry when one has come to the sanctum sanctorum of the gurudwara. The Third Guru Amar Das developed the concept establishing the principle of equality between all people of the world regardless of religion, caste, age, gender or social status.
