Nowhere else in the world will you have the opportunity to see anything like the ceremony which takes place every dusk on the Lahore adjacent border between Pakistan and India. Like a more intentionally volatile changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, this is ceremony is a chance for the guards of these two nations to march, shout, twirl and bark at each other in a show of discipline, pride and strength.

The threat from the other side no longer remains but the traditional ceremony is the same. Mirroring each other’s carefully choreographed movements over the border, each troupe of guards lowers their flags and performs a series of marches culminating in the tense handshake of the head guard from each side and the final slamming of the gates.

Like the Queen’s guards these soldiers are meticulously turned out and march in shiny boots with their chests puffed out. But it’s no fun performing just for yourself, viewing galleries on both sides of the border are well filled with onlookers, many who also get into the spirit of it with some foot stomping and shouts of ‘Long live Pakistan!’, ‘Long live India!’. There is space for about four or five hundred on the Pakistani side and for more than a thousand on the rather more plush Indian side. The galleries are full every day so make time to arrive early so you don’t miss getting turned away - some people come ever day and it seems to be popular with the locals as well as with visitors. Seriously a sight like no other and a way to actually experience a few moments of cultural history.

Photos of the ceremony on the TravelPak website.

Written by  Sohail Azhar.

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