Indian Sikhs celebrated World Turban Day on Tuesday to demonstrate the importance of retaining the headgear rather than adopting Western-style haircuts.
The central event of the celebration was a contest in which hundreds of male Sikhs had to wrap a turban around their heads in Amritsar, the holiest city in Sikhdom, with the winner judged on neatness and speed, organisers said.
The Sikh religious headgear is a piece of cloth about eight metres (26.4 feet) long and is carefully pleated over untrimmed hair.
Gurbachan Singh, who heads the religion's highest temporal seat -- the Akal Takht -- said the annual event was a reminder to Indian Sikhs living in the West of their religious obligations.
"Sikh families living abroad adopt Western culture and abandon the turban," he said.
"The celebration of World Turban Day will encourage every Sikh to wear the turban."
Avtar Singh Makkar, president of the trust that runs the famed Golden Temple, said the event was aimed at underlining the importance of Sikh traditions.
The "Sikh community is a minority in the world and the turban on the head of Sikhs shows their distinguished identity," Makkar said.
"The world knows Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a turbaned man," he said.
Manmohan Singh became India's first Sikh prime minister in 2004 at the head of the Congress-led government.
"The new generation of Sikhs need to know the importance of the turban and not get their hair cut which is against the norms of the religion," Makkar said.
Besides the turban, the religion calls for Sikhs to wear a steel bangle, cotton undergarments and carry a comb and a sword called a kirpan.
In 1984, after the assassination of prime minister Indira Gandhi by two Sikh bodyguards, many Sikhs in India shaved their beards and shed their turbans in a bid to escape anti-Sikh riots in which thousands were killed.
Copyright 2010 AFP South Asian Edition
