Adil Najam
More than 10,000 Sikh yatrees from India, Europe and North America converged on Nankana Sahib on Sunday to celebrate the 538th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, and the first of its ten Gurus. This was reportedly the largest Sikh gathering at Nankana Sahib since 1947.
Earlier in the week about 4000 pilgrims from India had arrived in Lahore on the train Samjhota Express to participate in the celebrations. Others arrived at Janam Isthan by the Amritsar-Nankana Punj Aab bus service. The pilgrims arrived at the Sacha Soda Gurdawara in 125 buses on Saturday morning and returned to Janam Isthan in the evening.
According to Amir Mir, writing in Gulf News (6 November, 2006):
Nankana Sahib, a sacred city for the Sikhs and located in the Pakistani province of Punjab, has come to life as nearly 10,000 Sikh pilgrims from India, Europe and America are attending the birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak. According to the chairman of the Pakistan Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee (PGPC) Sardar Mustan Singh… in an unprecedented gesture of goodwill, the Pakistan government had issued visas to more than 10,000 Sikh pilgrims from India, Europe and America to visit Pakistan and participate in the three-day celebrations of the birth anniversary of the founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak.
Sardar Mustan Singh said that free food is being provided to all the Sikh pilgrims and they have been provided accommodation by the Punjab government close to the Gurdwara Janam Asthan, the birthplace of Guru Nanak. The markets of Nankana Sahib have been specially decorated and special stalls were set up to feature traditional food and apparel and books and cassettes on Punjabi poetry and the Sikh religion.
Sikhs in other parts of Pakistan (see here for earlier post) also celebrated the occasion. For example, in Karachi, according to The News, “a large number of Sikh community members got together at Rama Sawami Temple, which is situated at M A Jinnah and performed their religious rituals there and at some other places like Ranchor Line and Kikri Ground.”
There is a travel company based in the UK, TravelPak (www.travelpak.co.uk) that does trekking and hiking tours in the Northern Areas.
They are currently working on a tour/pilgrimage of Sikh temples that would allow Sikhs (and of course, anyone else who is curious) all over the world to easily access their holy places in Pakistan.
From what I hear they might be beginning this tour in summer of 2007.
Congraulations to our Sikh friends on this happy occasion.
There is an economic angle to this… Pakistan can effectively build its tourism industry around Hindu and Sikh tourism…
For Non-Pakistani Sikhs and Hindus Visa numbers should be increased from 10 000 to 100 000… maybe we can learn from the Haj and Saudi experience with global religious tourism and do the same vis a vis Nankana Sahab, Hassan Abdal and Ketas Raj areas…
i extend my mubarakbad on this occasion to all my sikh friends….. and kudos to our government for creating a positive enviroment by taking positive steps….
Yes, all four pictures are from Pakistan and of this year. The first and fourth are at Nankana Sahib, the second is at Wahgah, I believe the third is from Lahore.
They seem to be all from Pakistan.
Greetings on this celebration to any Sikh friends reading this.
By the way, are those four pictures in the center all from Pakistan, or from celebrations around the world?
This is what the old boy said on the 11th…. something we forgot or never cared to remember again…
“You are Free- You are free to go to your temples, mosques or any other place of worship in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion caste or creed- that has nothing to do with the business of the state.
… you will see that in due course of time, Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims, not in a religious sense for that is the personal faith of an individual but in a political sense as citizens of this state.”
Quaid-e-Azam Mahomed Ali Jinnah