Indian religious warrior wears 300m-long turban for Sikh festival

Indian religious warrior wears 300m-long turban for Sikh festival

Mangalore Today News Network

India: A member of the Nihang, a traditional armed Sikh order, poses for a photo in his 300 metre turban during a festival in Amritsar, India.

The warrior was today pictured celebrating the Maghi Mela festival at the city’s Golden Temple.

The Nihang is an armed Sikh order, although it is largely ceremonial now.

They wear steel throwing weapons, called chakram, in their tall blue turbans, together with daggers, knives and swords of varying sizes and an iron chain.

Turbo-turban: A member of a Sikh warrior order wears a 300-metre turban at a festival in India

This style of round turban is known as a dumaala and there is a tradition of competing to see who can wear the largest.

According to Guinness World Records, in 2010 a Nihang called Major Singh wore a 400 metre turban that weighed a neck-straining 35 kilogrammes.

Early Sikh military history is dominated by the Nihangs, who are known for winning battles despite overwhelming odds.

Maghi Mela follows the Lohri, or harvest festival, and commemorates fighters in the Battle of Khidrana, which was fought between the invading Mughal army and the 10th Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh Ji.

Nihang is a Persian word meaning crocodile, and was given to the warriors by the Mughals, who said they fought as ferociously as the savage reptiles.

They gather at festivals to display their skills in a fighting style known as gatka, a weapon-based martial art associated with the Punjab region.

They also practice Bothati, an equestrian sport used as training for spear-fighting on horseback that is similar to jousting.

Alexandra, the daughter of former Tory MP Jonathan Aitken, last year married Inderjot Singh, who claims to be part of the sect.

A Nihang with elaborate headgear (left) takes a drink from a metallic bowl in the northern Indian city of Anandpur Sahib in 2001. A pair of Nihangs (right) dressed in their traditional martial costumes in 2002

Courtesy: Dailymail London