Sikh Observation

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The Gurdwara is a sacred temple where Sikh goes to worship God. This temple is located in Riverside around Mission Blvd. The temple is a white house style building with brick walls surrounding the area. On April 26, 2015, around 7a.m I observed people coming to the temple taking off their shoes before entering the Gurdwara. I noticed every single person took off their shoes and walked inside barefoot. The men were dressed nicely in fancy suits, older men wearing a turban around their head. All different types of color red, green, blue, orange, depending on what type of color tie they were wearing. Also I noticed that every man who was not wearing a turban, he would be given a bandana to cover their hair for respect. The women on the other hand …show more content…

I realized that the lines painted in the middle separated the men and women. All the men sat on the left side, while the women sat on the right side. A question came to mind, is women and men treated equally or is this due to tradition views? Everyone sat listening to the man in the middle saying a few words, I think it was prayer time. On the left side, a group of people would sing a few songs during the prayer time and everyone who sing along. For the next hour I heard the man speaking Punjabi, the Sikh’s official language that is also spoken in Punjab, India. I did not understand a word, but it was interesting hearing a language you rarely hear. Toward the end of the prayer, I noticed everyone stood up and started to recite a prayer the man was saying. In that time after, they were done reciting the prayer men and women would bow down and then get up and recite the prayer again. They repeated this several times, until at one point they all sat back down. The man saying the scriptures began to say something and everyone focused their attention to a few men handing out napkins. Later, a few men came with bowls filled with some type of sweet handing it to everyone. When this was done, it seemed like the mass was over and everyone went outside to the back. I smelled food coming from the bad, so I went out to the back and saw people sitting on the ground waiting for something. As I was about to ask, I saw a few men going around feeding everyone who was sitting down. It was beautiful to see them have a family

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