Sikhism Workshop with Chaz Singh

The Deputy Lord Mayor of Plymouth, Chaz Singh visited us at Plymouth College of Art’s department of fashion, to educate us on his religion, Sikhism. This was useful as the Sikhism religion links to our identity project that we have been working on this term. His aim was to enlighten us about his religion and teach/correct any misunderstandings which we had developed about the religion whilst allowing us to learn facts about the religion; also answering any questions that we posed.

Before starting, I would like to make it clear to my audience that these are my own understandings in which I gained from the workshop which we had today, I would hope that what I have to say would result in  no one taking offence from my opinions on what I learnt today. Personally from own revision and talking to outsiders, including Chaz Singh, has made me come to the conclusion that Sikhism in my eyes is a beautiful and fascinating religion, with some beliefs in which I agree on .

''The word 'Sikh' in the Punjabi language means 'disciple', Sikhs are the disciples of God who follow the writings and teachings of the Ten Sikh Gurus. The wisdom of these teachings in Sri Guru Granth Sahib are practical and universal in their appeal to all mankind.'' (quote from - www.sikhs.org)

Our visitor Chaz Singh, educated us as a group on the basics of the as a whole. Throughout the lecture, I began to grow a keen interested in the understandings and use of the religious symbols in which baptised Sikhs are expected to include in their daily life. These interesting symbols are known as the 5 K’s. Allow me to intrigue you into what they are, and why Sikhs include these into their religion.

 

The first K I learnt about was Kesh which is the practice of allowing your hair to grow naturally without being cut or trimmed. This is a symbol of respect for the perfection of God's creation. I thought this was really interesting and I can understand why Sikh's practice this as I think it is a very beautiful way of saying thank you to their god for what he has given them. The males wrap their hair up in turbans which are the most commonly known identifiable object within Sikhism.

The second K is known as Kangha. This a wooden comb which all baptised Sikh's must carry at all times. This is used to keep their hair up in place, this makes sense as one of the firsts K’s using the meaning of a symbol of growing your hair.

Kara is the third K which is a metal bracelet which is commonly made out steel or iron. This bracelet is worn by both male and female Sikhs. It is a symbol of faith and dedication to the religion.

Kachera is a specific style of cotton loose undergarment with a tie-knot worn by baptised Sikhs. Both male and female wear similar undergarment.

Kirpan is a strapped curved dagger or ceremonial sword. The word Kirpan has two roots - the first word is Kirpa, which means 'Mercy, grace, compassion and kindness' and the second root is Aan, which in turn means 'Honor, grace, and dignity'.  

I found learning about these religious symbols really interesting. It is really nice to learn about the religion and why they carry the symbols they do as this something completely different to what I do on a daily basic. It was really pleasurable to learn all of these things about a different culture as well as learning about how they idenitify themselves as a Sikh. This was really helpful for my project, identity.

Chaz also taught as about the Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib) which is their most sacred place of worship. It was built as a place of worship for men and women from all walks of life and all religions to come together and worship God equally. In the temple you can worship 24 hours day. You are also able to receive food 24 hours a day no matter who you are. Everyone must sit on the same level and receive the same meal as all who enter the temple are treated the same and all status of class must be left outside the temple. I think this is truly beautiful and I really like the fact that everyone is equal no matter who you are. I though this was a truly beautiful idea as I believe everyone should be treated as equals.

Chaz not only taught us about his religion but also relayed his own personal experiences. He informed us of some of the incidents which he had encountered in Plymouth for wearing a turban which was shocking to hear about. To think he is discriminated and receives racial abuse for wearing a religious symbol is shocking but he rises to that by coming into educational places and educating people like me. This was really upsetting as I believe no one should be discriminated. Although, I am aware not everyone is as closed minded as the people who make these horrible remarks. I think it was a really good opportunity for Chaz to open the eyes of the younger generations to his religion and teach them about his way of life as this would help stop the racial abuse and discrimination.

After learning about the religion, Chaz asked a member of the class to try wearing a turban. We all watched him put the turban on Joslin. It was really interesting to see how the fabric is wrapped and folded to create to such beautiful pleats. Chaz told us about the length of us personal turbans which were a fascinating 7 and a half metres long. This is really crazy to think about as he has to wrap this every single day which he told us only takes him 5 minutes in the morning - which is a lot quicker than most of us in if you relate it back. He let us into a little secret though saying that some of his designer turbans are premade.

As part of our identity project we were asked to come into college wearing something we wouldn't normally wear which would take us of our comfort zones. Joslin was asked by Chaz to wear the turban out on our break to see the reactions of others. As I was wearing as Muslim outfit we were asked to stick together to see how these new identity’s made us feel. We both found the people wear staring at us and we received many looks. We both felt this was because people thought we were being racist wearing these religious symbols as two white people. What happens if we were both from these two different religions and happened to be white? Why are people too quick to make judgement on how others should look? It happens whether you another race, overweight, underweight. We are all judged daily. These exercise really helped our understand of the identity which strongly benefitted our project unit.

The talk with Chaz Singh was really inspiring and moving, and I throughly enjoyed the afternoon session. I think that if more people like Chaz did these sessions their would be less misunderstanding and discrimmination as people would be more educated which would allow them to make a edcuated decision on what to say and see the religion for its true beauty. I personally found learning about the religion truely fascinating and inspiring. The talk has now kick started my idenity project along the route of religious symbols used within fashion although this is still a flourish idea.