History
The Dastaar Boonga Exhibit
THE BRITISH MUSEUM
Sikhism is one of the youngest world religions, founded in Punjab over 500 years ago. Many Sikhs, including some women, wrap cloth around their unshorn hair, making a turban, and this is an important symbol of their faith.
The magnificent turban currently on display in Room 3 of The British Museum (February 17 - April 17, 2011) is a rare example of a distinct type known as a dastaar boonga, literally meaning a ‘towering fortress'.
This style of turban was worn by a group of Sikhs called Akali Nihangs. These skilled warriors used this type of turban to hold their weapons, including daggers, swords and deadly throwing discs. Some Akali Nihangs still wear this type of turban today as a symbolic representation of this tradition.
It is unclear how long this turban has been in the Museum's collection, but it originally dates from the late 19th century and had come to London by the early 1900s. The turban displayed weapons, including two double-edged swords, six throwing discs, and one dagger, and a badge of the 45th Rattray's Sikh Battalion, which eventually became the 3rd Battalion Sikh Regiment of the present-day Indian Army.
The cloth in the original turban is now so fragile that Museum experts have had to use new fabric to display the weapons and badge. Members of the Sikh community, working closely with the Museum's experts, have reconstructed how it would have looked using traditional tying techniques and 37 metres of cloth.
Come to this display to encounter a unique article of faith, and hear members of the Sikh community explain why the turban remains important to them today.
See The Fortress Turban at The British Museum (London, England), Room 3 - February 17 - April 17, 2011.
For info on The British Museum, please CLICK here.
January 30, 2011
Conversation about this article
1: Jarnail Singh Gyani "Arshi" (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), January 31, 2011, 8:21 PM.
Very interesting. However, I am intrigued as to how some simple gurdwaras in Punjab (with a much lower level of preservation technique than the British Museum) have managed to preserve dastaars/ cholas etc. of Guru Nanak, Guru Amardas, Guru Hargobind and also Guru Gobind Singh ji. One gurdwara has a chola said to be of Guru Hargobind Sahib and claims it has blood stains of battle on it - and blood decays faster than cloth fibre. The gurdwara artifacts are wrapped in simple plastic see-through materials and kept in normal weather conditions and displayed very often in plain view to visitors. Remarkable?