This Sunday, at Noon, Susan and Daniela from the Queens Teens program came to the Sikh center for our meeting session. They were excited to learn about the religion and be able to ask questions they had from studying the kids' drawings when they did not know which religion they were encountering.
First we greeted Mr. Singh at the prayer room and talked about today's schedule. He offered us food and drink from the hall downstairs. He kept telling us about the food. In Sikhism, he said, everybody equally can receive free food and that is unique to Sikhism. I think sharing food must be a very important mission for their religion.
Then, we went to downstairs to share in the food. Daniela happened to see a classmate of hers there. They were very surprised to see each other. Well, I guess it does make sense. Unless they talked about religion to each other, they might never know what religion each believes in. Clothing between Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism and even Muslim could possibly be similar.
They liked their food a lot. I like the fried vegetable one. It's kind of like Japanese tempura.
We then went upstairs to meet with the children.
The children were very quiet. They made a large circle and mainly three or four children talked a lot as well as two of the educators. Daniela started from the Sword drawings because we received more than three sword drawings. In one sense, because kids like guns and swords, they tend to draw them. However, in this case, that was NOT correct. I should be very accurate but let me summarize a bit.
They talked about long history of hostilities between Muslims and both Hindus and Sikhs in India, and how the Sikhs defended themselves. To defend themselves, they had to fight against the other group, and they had to insist upon their religious beliefs even in the face of violence, leading to a history of martyrdom. They showed us their religious flag. It has a mark with two swords crossing and the edge of the flag is also like a sword. Female educator showed us a very beautiful, but looks like dangerous knife-like dagger called a kirpan. My wife later wondered how she could travel by airplane with the kirpan. It was originally from the idea of self defense, but now it is part of symbol and parts of items they are supposed to wear to remind them to be pious and defend, not hurt, others.
They also explained that there are other symbolic objects the have to wear. They have to wear a comb, reminding them to keep their hair clean and combed, and they have special underwear that they make themselves. They cannot cut their hair, as it is a symbol of their spirituality, and all men as well as some women wear it tied up in a turban. Then there is the steel bracelet, the kara, that they wear on the wrist of their dominant hand to remind them not to use their hand in violence or anger. We were all amazed and appreciate the meaning of Kara.
One of educators asked about the Teens' drawings for the booth. There was an area with creature-like figures and weaving green ivy. She said we do not have such things in our religion. It was not easy for her to understand why it happened, but the Teens explained that it was based on what they thought they understood from the children's drawings but went a bit beyond the actual imagery of the drawings as they tried to express what they thought the drawings referred to.
It could be a bit cliché, and something to do with Artists' imagination, but I felt this is something we all, artists or not, often do in our minds and it might be the beginning of misunderstandings.
Toward the end of the learning session, one of girls got excited about topic of marriage. The girl said her friend had to do an arranged marriage. It was a pretty tough dispute. One of the educators and another girl had different interpretations of the religion on this point, and their views seemed based on their generations. The one teacher felt that it was disrespectful and not improper for the children to disregard their parents' choice regarding arranged marriage while the younger girl seemed to feel that arranged marriage was an old custom that was no longer appropriate, as long as the parent and child had come to an agreement. On the brochure I received from the center, it says arrange marriage is NOT religious, but rather a cultural tradition. After the session was over, another girl started talking very excitedly about this issue. Since the Teens this time were both female, it seems they were easy to talk to about this issue, and the group got excited about the topic. From American cultural aspect, this arranged marriage idea must seem outrageous. But in Japan it even still exists, though not as commonly any more, and not because of any religious connections. I just thought in Sikhism, it must be difficult to distinguish whether this is a religious or cultural tradition.
I feel as though I was overwhelmed with information at this session, however. At some point soon, I would like to listen to the videotape again to understand what they spoke of more accurately.
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