UK jatha starts cleaning Golden Temple’s gold plating
To maintain the sheen of gold plating of the Golden Temple, UK-based Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha has begun the ‘sewa’ of cleaning these. The sewa has entered its 25th year.
To maintain the sheen of gold plating of the Golden Temple, UK-based Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha has begun the ‘sewa’ of cleaning these. The sewa has entered its 25th year.
Volunteers of the Jatha travelled from the UK and other countries to India to do ‘sewa’ which started on March 17. “The ‘sewa’ continues with approximately 60 volunteers cleaning the gold plating,” said Bhai Mohinder Singh, who heads the jatha headquartered at Birmingham. The sewa, which completes in 10 days, starts daily at 9 am to 6.30 pm. They don’t use any chemical and clean it with natural method.
Bhai Inderjit Singh, one of the volunteers, said they use “reetha” (soap nuts) powder mixed with lemon juice. “We boil the reetha powder in water for three hours. Mixing lemon juice in this, we make liquid soap which is used to clean the gold plating. Approximately 20 kg of reetha is needed for the cleaning”, he added.
Bhai Inderjit Singh, who originally belongs to village Gurha of Jalandhar, said, “Most of the volunteers have come from the UK, while others came from Canada and other countries. Apart from Birmingham, the UK volunteers also belong to London and Wolverhampton”.
“With industrial units and increasing number of vehicles, pollution level is rising in the air in Amritsar. This pollution causes ill-effects on the gold plating. When it rains amid pollution, blackish colour layer does not let the gold glitter much. So, the gold plating needs to be cleaned every year. So, we come here every year in March for doing this sewa”, added Bhai Mohinder Singh.
It was 192 years ago that Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Sikh ruler, donated ₹16.39 lakh for ‘sone di sewa’. Mohammad Khan was the first craftsman to overlay the sanctum with gold foil. Besides Ranjit Singh’s successors, his queens and other prominent Sikhs also donated money for ‘sewa’. A total amount of ₹64.11 lakh was spent at that time, as per the book, Twarikh Sri Amritsar.
Sikh organisations, including the Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha undertook the task of coating the shrine with fresh plates of gold. Work started in February 1995 and was completed in April 1999.
