Sri Harmandir Sahib

Sri Harmandir Sahib, also called Sri Darbar Sahib and known in English as the Golden Temple, is the most important shrine of the Panth. It stands in the middle of the Amrit Sarovar at Amritsar, and the Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says the city grew around its portal.

Who built it. Guru Ram Das began digging the tank in 1577. Guru Arjan Dev lined it and raised the Harimandar in its centre, with a door on each of the four sides, which the Encyclopaedia reads as a sign that it was open to all regardless of caste or creed. By current tradition the cornerstone was laid on 28 December 1588 with Hazrat Mian Mir of Lahore, though accounts differ on whether he laid it himself or the Guru asked for his help. The Adi Granth was installed on 16 August 1604, with Baba Buddha as the first granthi.

Attacks and rebuilding

• 1740: Masse Khan, a Rangharh Rajput landlord who was police commissioner, polluted the tank and turned the shrine into a place for dancing girls. Bhai Mehtab Singh and Bhai Sukha Singh killed him on 11 August 1740.
• 1757: Ahmad Shah Durrani desecrated the shrine and polluted the tank. Baba Deep Singh fell fighting on 11 November 1757.
• 1762: Durrani blew up the Harimandar with gunpowder. After the Sikh conquest of Sirhind in January 1764 Jassa Singh Ahluwalia called for funds to rebuild it. Bhai Gurbakhsh Singh and 30 Nihangs died resisting Durrani on 1 December 1764.
• Ranjit Singh's reign: the building took its present appearance. The British ran the shrine directly for about a decade after 1849, and the Punjab government kept control until 1920.
• June 1984: the army entered the complex in Operation Blue Star. Giani Raghbir Singh, Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht Sahib, says the troops came in on 1 June, the day Sikhs were marking Guru Arjan Dev's martyrdom. Sri Akal Takht Sahib was destroyed. The government rebuilt it, the Sikhs did not accept that building, and it was demolished in early 1986 to be replaced through kar seva. The Sikh Reference Library was nearly destroyed by fire. Al Jazeera reports an official death toll of about 400, while Sikh groups say thousands were killed.

Who manages it. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) took control in 1920, and the Gurdwara Act of 1925 made it the management committee. In June 2024 the SGPC and the Jathedar marked the 40th anniversary of the attack at Sri Akal Takht Sahib as a Ghallughara, and the SGPC president, Harjinder Singh Dhami, said the government should apologise in Parliament.