Golden Temple

Sikh worshipper at one of the twin flagstaffs, in the Golden Temple, Punjab, India. The Golden Temple is the centre of the Sikh world. Founded in 1589 on an island in a small lake known since the time of the Buddha as a special site and place of healing, it suffered, as did the Sikhs, at the hands of the Mughal invaders. Sikh history is essentially one of struggle and martyrdom in the defence of the temple. The Sikh prophets are known as gurus, and the last of these, the 10th, decreed that there would be no successors, and that the final guru would be the Sacred Book itself, the Granth Sahib, which is housed in the temple.