I am digging these photographs of very large turbans -- perhaps for ceremonial occasions? -- worn by holy men of the Sikh faith in India. If someone is more familiar with their traditions than I, do pop in the comments and tell us more about what we're seeing."Check Out These Enormous Sikh Turbans" (urlesque, thanks Stephen Lenz!)
I am digging these photographs of very large turbans -- perhaps for ceremonial occasions? -- worn by holy men of the Sikh faith in India. If someone is more familiar with their traditions than I, do pop in the comments and tell us more about what we're seeing. "Check Out These Enormous Sikh Turbans... More.
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Meet the least popular guy in the movie theater.
It looks like he wrapped up a body and plunked it on his head.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turban_(Sikhism)
One major reason for the turban in Sikhism is that Sikhs don't cut their hair as a sign of devotion. The turban helps control a big mess of never been cut hair. My guess is these guys either have and insane amount of hair, or want to look like they do. More hair = more devoted maybe?
I want to see him try to get on an airplane.
Well, I am not Sikh specialist but my best guess is that this man has too many sins. Feeling guilty, he carries this stuff in his head in order so relive. Bruno
What the hell? I leave Amritsar for like 20 minutes...
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v228/jfrancis/India1975/GuruNanak1975_2.jpg
(okay, maybe longer than 20 minutes, but still...)
Im guessing that with never cutting ones hair its got to get brittle even if it gets washed. So the turban makes it look makes the possible horrible rats nest on ones head look good.
Laundry day.
The guy who mistook his hat for his wife?
The higher the hair, the closer to god?
http://www.dankimball.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/hair_1_2.jpg
According to this site, it's for a world record. http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/003021.html
Thank you Mario. But Guru Nanak is in another castle!
http://media.photobucket.com/image/toad%20mario%20brothers/KupoNH/renders/NewSuperMarioBros-Toad.png?t=1248742890
The man is sikh Nihang "Nihang is a Persian word that literally means "Crocodile". The term owes its origin to the Mughal historians who noticed that these brave armed-monks fought ferociously [the Mughals] like crocodiles, and the term struck." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nihang
The size of the turban has is atypical even for Nihang, they are just normally dressed in blue. Some choose to adorn themselve with an excess of weapons and turban size which does have to do with the length of hair.
I want to see him try to get on an airplane.
I want to see him try to get in a Volkswagen.
Khalsa Sikhs comb their hair twice a day, so there would be no "rat's nest". It looks like there are some weapons tucked into it. Maybe it's to commemorate a historical battle against the Moghuls.
I believe this is in Rajasthan, and the people who wear these turbans are called Rajputs. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajput) They are not Sikh, they are Hindu. Turbans are just part of their traditional garb.
I was expecting a less worldly reason, Thalia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikh_turban#Styles_of_turbans
I was just playing Katamari Damacy...
perhaps the whole more hair - more religious thing feeds into a masochistic burden, a la self flagellation, or corporal mortification akin to opus dei. if you're to believe that the longer/more hair the closer you come to god, then perhaps its something that only the most devoted can bare?
or he just despises good posture.
I go by many names...
I would love to se the martial arts this guy can perform under a 77lb Turban. (400m of fabric?! I can't imagine balancing 4 bolts on my head.)
Voldemort is hiding on the back of his head - all of him.
These are men. They do not need a reason to ensure at least one object about their person is bigger than the next man's.
Hm. Why not search dem pipes of z internets rather den bloviate. http://www.sikhnet.com/oldsikhnet/SikhEducation/turbans.pdf
sikh as hell.
the pope ain't got shit on his hat.
(turban, whatever)
As an aside, anybody else notice that the Khanda emblems on the front of that turban look an awful lot like the Rebel Alliance logo?
The Nihang Sikhs are a valiant branch of a warrior faith born of a proud people. Sometimes they do things simply because they are difficult.
Once upon a time, the United States of America had an honored place for people like the Sikhs. But now we force their children to rivet or stitch their dulled knives into the sheaths (see http://www.sikhcoalition.org/LegalUS1.asp ) and hide them under their clothing. It is sad that our culture of ever-increasing cowardice inflicts weakness on others in this fashion.
It seems to me that the Sikhs have a pretty good sense of humor about the turban tradition:
http://www.ratemyturban.com/
And in this modern day and age, with all the Internets you can eat, you don't have to go far to find out anything. This is especially true of the Sikhs, who have been very actively reaching out to the rest of us to let us know more about their beliefs and history.
http://www.sikhnet.com/
Don't fear the turban! You'll miss out getting to know some nice people.
http://www.usdoj.gov/crs/video/ocg-video.htm
B-spore: Unless it's Jiffy Pop.
Unrelated, really, but reminds me of this:
http://snagabeardedmozlem.wordpress.com/
@maoinhibitor
The few Sikhs I've know have all had very good senses of humor in general.
I would have guessed larger turban -> more hair -> older age -> greater wisdom.
The larger the headdress, the greater the religious hustler.
I thought you folks used the internet. Took one quick Google to come up with some answers. 1. the guy who is there twice is trying to get youth to return to use of traditional turban--using something outsized and a bit outrageous to make a point. And don't dismiss this b/c it's religious--outsized and a bit outrageous can cover a host of Boing Boing sites and topics. 2. a kid brother wanted to do what his older brothers were, but he was sent away and told, 'not until you're tall enough.' You can guess where that lead in terms of the tall turban...and the praise the kid got for being resourcesful and devoted. Come on; we're talking human nature here.
So Hell must be populated with bald guys ?
Whats the big deal?
This happens every laundry day.
Howzzat good for yer neck?
"I got this turban 10 days ago and now I can only walk backwards."
"Does this turban make my soul look fat?"
"A 6-year-old boy's brother saw him float into the sky in a massive turban"
Somewhere there is a sikh website that has pictures of American men tripping over their enormous jeans that hang below their asses, or women wearing 6 inch high heels who can barely keep their balance while walking, and they are all leaving comments in an effort to explain why we are dressed like that.
Just did some more reading on these guys. Damn they are something special.
WWW.SIKHS.ORG
I had heard amazing stories about the sikhs before when I studied in London. But just reading about some of the stuff is incredible. They fought intolerance, supression and injustice for all humanity, irrespective of caste, creed, religion and sex, 500 years before the west even started thinking about such things. They are supposely unbelievely strong warriors, and follow a martial way of life.
i read this
http://www.saragarhi.org/saragarhi_memorial.html
Apparently they wear turbans as part of some relgious mandate, to stand out in a crowd. So they were noticed. I guess back in the days of terror, you never knew a "good" guy from a "bad" guy unless he wore a turban. Looks like this guy really wants to be noticed though.
Two things quickly came to mind:
1) Now we know where Osama Bin Laden is hiding...
2) Now we know where Carmen San Diego is hiding...
The Gurus youngest Son, about 4 at the time, tied a massive turban, as he wanted to go into battle. His name was fateh singh, ao he would look tall.
The Warrior Sikhs (Nihangs) ties this massive version in honour of that day.
hey all, this is a NIHANG Sikh, a warrior clan among sikhs. these guys follow a martial way of life as was propounded by the sikh gurus, in order to fight oppression and injustice. the turban he is wearing is ofcourse too big to understand, however it is just out of devotion to the gurus, who infused a martial spirit in the most ordinary of men. there have been stories of a handful of sikh warriors taking on the might of huge Mughal armies and emerging triumphant. these are some men really, so this abnormally big turban doesn't come as a surprise to me as these guys have an indomitable spirit and this is just an embodiment of that. hail the warrior.