By Emily Fishbein | FRONTIER MYANMAR |
SUNDAY MORNINGS are church time for many residents of Myitkyina. Yet, walking north along the Ayeyarwady River from the main market, it is not church hymns that passers-by can hear, but chanting, drumming and the distinctive sound of a harmonium.
Emanating from the windows of a temple’s golden-domed towers, the musical prayer forms part of the weekly gathering of the Kachin State capital’s small but vibrant Sikh community. Comprising 43 families – 280 people all told – the Sikh community has lived in Myitkyina since it became the commercial and administrative capital of Kachin, and is actively involved in the local economy.
Daw Bhagwant Kaur believes she is 92 years old, making her the oldest Sikh in Myitkyina. She was born in Waingmaw, on the other side of the Ayeyarwady, and traces her ancestry to a soldier who served with the British army in colonial Burma before World War II. He was posted to a town near Sadung on the border with China where he served for about 10 years before settling in Waingmaw, the region’s then capital, where he was joined by five siblings and established a business trading salt, fruit and other goods.
Many Sikhs in Myitkyina have similar stories about the arrival of their ancestors in Kachin. Hand-written records in the gurdwara, or temple, show that the first Sikhs arrived in Kachin in about 1898 with the British military, after which some settled down and went into business.
The small Sikh community shared with others the hardship of World War II, including occupation by the Japanese. Baghwant Kaur said that during those six difficult years she and her family often fled to the jungle to escape the threat of violence.
Soon after World War II ended, Baghwant Kaur travelled to British India to visit relatives in the western province of Rawalpindi, which had a large Sikh population. Then came the upheaval and religious bloodshed that followed the partition of British India into the separate nations of India and Pakistan in 1947.
The Sikh population in Rawalpindi and elsewhere in Pakistan faced persecution and violence, and hundreds of thousands fled to India. Bhagwant Kaur returned to Kachin State, where she married and had six children. Many other members of the Sikh community in Myitkyina have parents or relatives who arrived from Rawalpindi in the aftermath of partition.
When Burma gained independence from Britain in 1948, the Kachin capital was shifted from Waingmaw to Myitkyina. The Sikh community was among those who moved and re-established their businesses and social roots in the new location.
After General Ne Win seized power in 1962, life became harder for members of non-indigenous communities like the Sikhs. Those of Indian descent were barred from higher education and faced other forms of discrimination as they came under pressure to emigrate.
At its peak, the Sikh community in Burma is believed to have numbered about 10,000, but has dwindled to between 2,000 and 3,000. Myitkyina has the biggest community outside Yangon and Mandalay, but there are also sizeable numbers of Sikhs in Lashio, Taunggyi, Mogok and Pyawbwe.
There are about 50 gurdwaras in Myanmar.
Ko Harmed Singh, 22, has been interested from a young age in the baja, or harmonium, a keyboard with a hand-operated pump that is a core element of Sikh music. Beginning in the Eighth Standard, when he was about 14, he began visiting the gurdwara each evening to take lessons from the granthi, a religious scholar who lives at the temple and provides teaching and guidance to anyone who wishes to learn. Harmed Singh, who claims to know more than 1,000 melodies by heart, is known by Sikhs throughout Myanmar for his musical talent.
After services, men and women of all generations often gather for cooking, socialising, and feasting on fragrant Indian poori, curries, sweets and hot milk tea. These langar, or communal meals, form a central element of Sikh tradition. Gurdwaras are open to all faiths and it is not uncommon for Sikhs to invite non-Sikh friends to attend a service or join a langar.
To ensure that traditions are maintained through generations, classes are held at the gurdwara during summer holidays and many parents also teach their children at home.
However, proficiency in Punjabi, the native language of Sikhs and the language used for prayer, is in decline as each generation becomes more socially integrated and Burmese becomes the language of preference at home.
Throughout the generations, Sikhs have maintained positive business and social relations with the diverse ethnic and religious groups of Myitkyina. Sikhs and non-Sikhs regularly get together for a meal or tea, or at tennis or football matches. Many electronics, auto-parts and indoor market shops are run by Sikhs, and their employees and customers are drawn from all communities.
The Sikhs in Myitkyina have maintained their cultural identity as a group while adapting, adjusting and, at times, assimilating with the wider community and by so doing, enriching the fabric of Kachin society.
To read the full story, go here. The author can be reached at fishbeinemily@gmail.com
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