Jakarta's Sikh community thrives and grows

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Mon, 11/06/2006 11:39 AM | Jakarta

Anissa S. Febrina, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The sound of the kirtan (religious hymn) broke the morning silence in a Sikh temple in Central Jakarta's Pasar Baru.

Shortly after, men and women in colorful dress began swarming the place, sitting on the brown carpet after kneeling before the shrine of Sikhism's founding father Guru Nanak.

A culmination of a three-day marathon reading of their holy book, the Guru Granth Saheb, Sikhs came from all over Greater Jakarta to end their week-long commemoration of Guru Nanak's 537th birth anniversary or jayanti with hymns, prayers and a feast.

""After we finished the reading, all people here ended the ritual by conducting a closing prayer or ardas,"" said the 21-year-old assistant to the preacher, Mandip Singh, on the sidelines of Sunday's ceremony.

Living in a cultural and ethnic melting pot like Jakarta, it is a communal gathering like this that reminds Sikhs of their roots and beliefs.

As Christmas Day is to the Christians and Idul Fitri is to the Muslims, on this special day men, women, teenagers and children get together in one of the largest Sikh temples among the five in the city.

The birthday of the founding father of Sikhism, Guru Nanak, is one of the most sacred days of the Sikh calendar, cherished by Sikhs all over the world.

On the day of the festival itself the holy book is carried out of the temple in a procession, covered with wreaths of flowers and accompanied by panj piare (""the beloved five"", or five baptized assistants of the preacher) carrying nishan sahib, the Sikh flag.

Sikhism, a spiritual teaching merging mostly Hindu and Islamic values, was founded in the 15th century by Nanak, a man born to a warrior-caste family.

His teachings explicitly rejected both the cruel social systems of Hinduism and the theocracy of Islam, forming instead another path, built on the virtues of the good life of the householder and of praising the One God, according to a Web site on Sikh beliefs.

With such a universal teaching, he soon found a large number of adherents who joined together in common congregations and brought peace to India's fractured society.

They were called the Sikhs, the ""students"" or ""seekers of Truth"".

Among his famous teachings, he states: ""All people are children of the same Father, do not divide them into Hindus and Muslims.""

To this date, there are around 23 million Sikhs spread throughout the world, including some 1,000 members of the Pasar Baru temple which was established in 1955.

The Sikh temple conducts daily meetings for the disciples of Sikhism. Besides serving as a place of worship, it functions as an important community center for the Sikhs.

""The numbers in our congregation are increasing as more and more people (Indians) are coming to Jakarta,"" said 22-year-old Karanbeer Singh.

Baptized in their teens, Mandip and Karanbeer are among the younger generation of panj piare.

Upon receiving the amrit or the sweetened water as a symbol of baptism, a Sikh is supposed to resist material desires.

""That is also the point when we are no longer allowed to cut our hair. The philosophy is that God creates us with ever-growing hair and thus we should not reject it,"" Mandip explained.

During the ceremony, Mandip and Karanbeer were dressed in the yellow panj piare attire, along with black turbans to cover their hair.

Done with the morning ceremony, people can enjoy a free meal consisting of several traditional dishes.

""What must always be on the menu is this bread and dhal (split pea curry). The two are like an inseparable pair,"" said Rabinder Singh, who attended to the guests of the ceremony.

The dishes are cooked by members of the congregation in a kitchen at the back of the temple.

Sikhs hold this meal in the spirit of seva (service) and bhakti (devotion).

""We provide this kind of meal every day for anyone who needs it. For free,"" Rabinder said.

To put it in the words of Guru Nanak ""the best way to worship God and to please Him is to sincerely serve all people irrespective of their faith, caste, color or race.

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