Carter to welcome Sikh holy texts

Friday, 16 April 2010,
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party

Chris Carter

Ethnic Affairs spokesperson

Labour’s Ethnic Affairs Spokesperson Chris Carter will join the Sikh community tomorrow in Auckland to welcome the holiest texts of the Sikh religion to New Zealand.

The Guru Granth Sahib is a collection of documents compiled by gurus (teachers and leaders) of the Sikh religion between 1469 and 1708. The documents are touring Australia and New Zealand before returning to their home at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India.

Chris Carter said being entrusted with these documents is a tremendous source of pride for New Zealand’s 10,000 Sikhs. Some of the pages are more than half a millennium old, and Sikhs seeing them with their own eyes will feel equivalent to a Christian seeing the first Bible or a Muslim seeing the first Qur’an.

The Guru Grant Sahib’s arrival coincides with celebrations to mark Vaisakhi, the Punjabi New Year. The documents will be escorted by a 45-strong delegation from Melbourne, and will arrive at Auckland International Airport on NZ124 at 5:25pm tomorrow. The organisers of the tour, the New Zealand Sikh Society Auckland and the Supreme Sikh Council of New Zealand, welcome all media organisations to witness this historic event.

“I would like to congratulate New Zealand’s Sikh community on receiving the Guru Granth Sahib,” Chris Carter said. “This honour demonstrates how New Zealand is known throughout the world as a country which respects its minority religions, and is a real opportunity for New Zealand’s Sikh community to showcase their ancient culture and religion.”

With thanks : scoop.co.nz

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Sikhs celebrate Baisakhi at Nankana Sahib

Pak SGPC rejects amendments in Nanakshahi Calendar

The Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) on Wednesday rejected the recent amendments in the Nanakshahi calendar by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the Akal Takht. The announcement was made before at least 10,000 Sikhs at Nankana Sahib Gurdwara near Lahore in Pakistan, who had gathered to celebrate Baisakhi. American Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee head Dr Pritpal Singh told The Indian Express from Pakistan that they had already rejected the changes made and PSGPC also followed. “There had been strong resentments against the SGPC for bringing changes in the calendar adopted by majority of the Sikhs since 2003. Now, PSGPC chief Sham Singh has also rejected the amendments and they will continue to observe the gurpurabs according to the older calendar,” he said.

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With thanks : source : IndianExpress

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Baisakhi Greetings

Wishing you a very Happy Baisakhi

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World Turban Day

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Thousands of Sikhs return to the fold on World Turban Day

Thousands of Sikh men, each with a unique work of art perched on his head, will take to the streets of India today. Their mission: to prove to the world that the turban is not old hat.

Scores of rallies, prayer vigils and tying competitions will mark World Turban Day, an event conceived amid concerns that young Sikhs are abandoning the most conspicuous emblem of their faith — six to eight metres of cloth wrapped around their heads — in favour of close-cropped Western-style hairdos.

“We are inviting Sikhs who have forsaken the turban to return to the fold,” said Jaswinder Singh of the Akaal Purkh Ki Fauj (Army of God), a Turban Pride movement. “This day is their chance to reconnect with our gurus.”

Sikh men — and some women — have worn turbans since 1699 when Guru Gobind Singh, the religion’s tenth master, prohibited them from cutting their hair. Every man was given the surname Singh — lion — and was required to wear a steel bangle, long cotton underwear, a sheathed sword and wooden comb.

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With thanks : source : timesonline

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World Sikh Convention: Debar Jathedars of Takht Patna Sahib and Takht Hazoor Sahib

Sikh body urges govt for withdrawal of blacklist

NEW DELHI: The World Sikh Convention in New Delhi sought to debar the Jathedars of Takht Patna Sahib and Takht Hazoor Sahib from participation in clergy meetings convened to deliberate on panthic matters till they shun the practice of adorning the controversial Dasam Granth parallel to Guru Granth Sahib.

Representatives of several Panthic Bodies from India and 31 representatives from US, Canada, UK, Belgium, Sweden and Pakistan took part in the conference on Sunday.

Representatives of an international Sikh body appealed to the government to do away with the blacklist that debarred some Sikhs from entering the country.

They made the demand in a resolution adopted at the World Sikh Convention that ended with an open session at Rakabganj Gurdwara here on Sunday. The delegates contended that the list had no relevance any longer as the Khalistan agitation was over in Punjab long ago.

“The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara managing committee should take up the issue with the Indian government,” said Kuldeep Singh from New York, adding that the blacklist was also coming in the way of those having similar names getting the Indian visa.

Punjabis in the country must register Punjabi as their mother tongue in the ongoing national census, it said.

Delegates also appealed to Sikhs across the globe to continue to observe all the ceremonies in accordance with the unchanged version of the Nanakshahi calendar and changes that have been introduced now should not be accepted.

The conference formulated a committee to finalise the criteria of appointing the Jathedar of Sri Akal Takht as well as the mode of retirement, qualifications, sphere of authority, working conditions.

Delhi Sikh Gurdwara management committee president Paramjit Singh Sarna said, “We strongly condemn the ban on turbans in France and other Sikh code of conduct in other countries and demand that the Indian government protect the interests of NRI Sikhs and provide them dual citizenship.”

The convention also passed a resolution against the capital punishment awarded to Davinderpal Singh Bhullar in the case relating to the attack on youth Congress leader MS Bhitta and sought its revocation.

With thanks : punjabnewsline

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Sikh pilgrims must have visa for sites they want to visit: Pak

LAHORE: Pakistani authorities have imposed a ban on the travel of Indian Sikh pilgrims to places for which they do not possess a visa, as 1,400 devotees arrived here to take part in celebrations marking the Baisakhi festival.

The Home Department of Punjab province banned such travel by issuing an official circular, official sources said on Monday.

The circular was sent to the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) which looks after shrines of minority communities and organises pilgrimages to such sites, and to law enforcement agencies. The circular stated it was the duty of authorities "to provide all facilities and protection to the Sikh yatris (pilgrims). But it is important for their (Sikhs') protection to disallow them to visit places for which they are not issued visa by the Pakistan High Commission in India."

Law enforcement agencies and the ETPB were asked by the Home Department to enforce the ban at any cost.

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With thanks : Source : Times of India

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Shaheedi diwas : Baba Deep singh ji

B S Vohra
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Malaysian Sikh writes heaviest and largest Guru Granth Sahib

KUALA LUMPUR: A 73-year-old Malaysian Sikh has completed his fourth handwritten copy of 1,430 page Guru Granth Sahib, which could be the largest and heaviest in the world.

Jaswant Singh Khosa's handwritten fourth copy of the Guru Granth Sahib weighs 84kg and is 91.44cm in length and 66.04cm wide, breaking his previous 'Malaysia Book of Records' for his second copy which weighed 45kg and was 76.2cm long and 48.26cm wide in 2004, a media report said today.

"It is a labour of love. The (latest) book is 182.9cm long when it opens up. I wrote for 14 hours a day. It was worth it," he told The Star newspaper.

It took Khosa 14 months to complete his fourth copy which he donated to a Sikh temple in the United States.

The daily said a gurudwara in Amritsar had replaced its 200-year-old holy book and was currently using khosa's second hand-written copy, which he had also donated.

The third copy, which is the same size as the second, was given to a Sikh temple in Canada in 2007. His first hand-written copy, a smaller version, was donated to a Sikh temple in London in 1998. All four copies were in traditional Gurmukhi calligraphy.

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With thanks : source : Times of India

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Kirpans out as Canadian Sikh divisions deepen over scripture

IANS

TORONTO: Divisions among Canadian Sikhs over the ongoing controversy about the Dasam Granth reached a flash point with hardliners using kirpans to attack supporters of former Akal Takht head priest Darshan Singh Ragi who suspects the authenticity of the scripture.

After the holy Granth which carries the writings of the first nine Sikhs, the Dasam Granth is another major scripture of the community carrying the writings of the last guru Gobind Singh.

Though only the holy Granth is installed at all gurdwaras because it was declared the eternal guru of the Sikhs by the last guru (Guru Gobind Singh) before his death in 1708, some gurdwaras associated with his birth and death in Patna and Nanded have also installed the Dasam Granth.

However, Sikh scholars, inlcuding Ragi,are against its installation as they suspect the authenticity of the Dasam Granth because of objectionable parts - references to women in derogatory languages, sexual promiscuity and intoxicants - in it.

They say the last Sikh guru could never have written these parts, linking the derogatory parts to conspiracy theories against the community.

But opponents say these scholars are denigrating the Dasam Granth and should be excommunicated from the Sikh religion.

Toronto-based former Akal Takht head priest Ragi was ex-communicated from the Sikh clergy last December for vocing his opposition to the scripture.

Last week Ragi, who presided over the Akal Takht at the height of militancy in Punjab in the 1980s, was not allowed to perform kirtan at a suburban gurdwara with his opponents taking out their kirpans and injuring one of his prominent supporters. The protesters were opposed to the ostracized former Akal Takht head priest being invited to the gurdwara.

Sikhs are not supposed to do anything with someone excommunicated by the Akal Takht - their spiritual and temporal seat in Amritsar.

The use of kirpans in the gurdwara violence led to calls in some section of the media to revisit the issue of kirpan in Canada where the Sikhs won a major legal victory for it in 2006 to let them wear their religious symbol in classrooms and work places.

With thanks : source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Kirpans-out-as-Canadian-Sikh-divsions-deepen-over-scripture/articleshow/5786604.cms

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