Gurdwara Bir Baba Budha Sahib

Gurdwara Bir Baba Budha Sahib stands in Thatta village, not far from Amritsar, and is dedicated to Baba Budha, who served as the first head priest of Harmandir Sahib. Blessed as a boy by Guru Nanak, he lived long enough to perform the anointing ceremony for five later Gurus, which gives the shrine a special place in Sikh memory.

The best-known story links it to the birth of Guru Hargobind. Mata Ganga, wife of Guru Arjan Dev, came to ask Baba Budha for a son; he declined the rich dishes she first brought and accepted only a plain missi roti of gram flour with an onion, after which he blessed her. Missi roti and onion are still handed out here as prasad. Devotees also visit the old well where he bathed each day, whose water is thought to heal. The complex has marble work and painted frescoes, an Amrit Sarovar, a canopied seat for the Guru Granth Sahib and a two-storey langar block beside it.