Pilgrims lining walkway across from Golden Temple.

Matt Munro

Punjab (India)

A particularly tourist-friendly region, thanks to its strong expatriate connections with the UK and Canada, Punjab, the homeland of India’s Sikh population, provides a wonderful opportunity to go traipsing into the backyards of North India. The Golden Temple in Amritsar is an undoubted highlight, but Punjab hides other small treasures among its agricultural expanses. Rarely visited towns like Patiala, Bathinda and Faridkot contain seemingly lost-in-time marketplaces and crumbling forts that hint at faded grandeur, while welcoming gurdwaras (Sikh temples) are to be found across the state.

Attractions

Must-see attractions

  • Golden Temple

    Golden Temple

    Amritsar

    The legendary Golden Temple is actually just a small part of this huge gurdwara complex, known to Sikhs as Harmandir Sahib. Spiritually, the focus of…

  • Govindgarh

    Govindgarh

    Punjab (India)

    Of all the ruined forts in Punjab, Bathinda’s Govindgarh is the mightiest and most impressive. It’s also the oldest, dating way back to the 7th century,…

  • Guru-Ka-Langar

    Guru-Ka-Langar

    Amritsar

    At the southeast end of the Golden Temple Complex is the Guru-Ka-Langar, an enormous dining room where an estimated 100,000 pilgrims come to eat every day…

  • Qila Mubarak

    Qila Mubarak

    Punjab (India)

    The ancestral home of the maharajas of Patiala, this richly ornamented 18th-century fort is an Arabian Nights fantasy of soaring buttresses and latticed…

  • Golden Temple Interpretation Centre

    Golden Temple Interpretation Centre

    Amritsar

    Hidden beneath the marble square outside the clock-tower entrance to the Golden Temple, this fascinating multimedia museum tells the story of Sikhism and…

  • Partition Museum

    Partition Museum

    Amritsar

    Housed in the beautifully restored 19th-century Town Hall, this unique museum (the only one in the world dedicated to Partition) offers a poignant and…

  • Border-Closing Ceremony

    Border-Closing Ceremony

    Punjab (India)

    Every afternoon Indian and Pakistani border guards meet at the border post between Attari and Wagah to engage in a 30-minute display of military…

  • Sheesh Mahal

    Sheesh Mahal

    Punjab (India)

    Graced by two wedding-cake towers and an ornamental suspension bridge, Sheesh Mahal is one of Punjab's more striking buildings. Inside the lavishly…

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Beyond Punjab (India)
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