After winning seven years ago, Malaysia’s first Sikh bagpipe band wants to repeat history this year at World Pipe Band Championship
The band currently has around 60 active members and emerged as the first-ever Asian band to win the World Pipe Band Championship in Glasgow, Scotland seven years ago.
KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 — So how did Malaysia come to have an award-winning Sikh bagpipe band?
Sri Dasmesh, the country’s first and only Sikh bagpipe band, started with 15 members in 1986 under the guidance of brothers Sukdev Singh and Harvinder Singh.
The band currently has around 60 active members and emerged as the first-ever Asian band to win the World Pipe Band Championship in Glasgow, Scotland seven years ago.
It actually began as a marching unit thumping drums bought at a closing-down sale on the grounds of Gurdwara Sahib Polis (Parliament) some 40 years ago.
The band trains rigorously all year round.
On Saturday afternoons, they march for hours under the scorching heat at the Sri Dasmesh International School in Bangsar.
On other days, they record and submit videos of their daily assignments for their instructors to review daily.
Band chairman Tripert Singh Khalsa, 31, said the intensive training keeps his team grounded and geared for another strong performance in the Grade 4A category at the World Pipe Band Championship this year.
“We don’t chase for personal glory here. Whatever we do, we do for the country,” Tripert said, when met with his team at the Sri Dasmesh International School in Bangsar recently.
Besides Tripert, some of the other band managers Malay Mail met include Tarminder Singh Cheema, 25, pipe sergeant Bhupinderjit Singh Gill, 29, and mid-section head Jyotsaroop Kaur, 20.
All four were part of the team that won the world championship in 2019.
How did the band start?
As young boys, Sukdev and Harvinder developed their passion for bagpipes by watching the police parade rehearsals at the Pusat Latihan Polis (Pulapol) while playing football nearby.
Sukdev eventually became a Malaysian Airlines pilot while Harvinder became an engineer and an award-winning entrepreneur providing digital and automation solutions.
While studying at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, Harvinder lived at a gurdwara situated next to the College of Piping along Otago Street in Glasgow.
“My father spent two years listening to the bagpipers there.
“Later, he flew back to Scotland to learn from the College of Piping and brought back the tutorial books that we still keep today,” Tripert said.
“By that time, my uncle and dad already bought the drums at a closing-down sale.
“Then, they secured some bagpipes for the band through crowdfunding from gurdwaras across the country,” he added.
In 1989, Sri Dasmesh performed at the inauguration of the Central Sikh Temple in Singapore and also participated at Malaysia’s National Day parade in 1990.
The band also bagged four out of five medals in their first overseas competition in Jakarta, Indonesia in 1997.
Last year, Sri Dasmesh performed the country’s first-ever bagpipe concert at Dewan Filharmonik Petronas (DFP) and the sold-out concert won the hearts of hundreds of Malaysians.
Tripert said active members are usually aged between 13 to 18 years old and are recruited after a stringent selection process comprising interviews, personality tests, as well as theory and practical examinations.
“The selection process usually takes about six months and it takes about a year for a new recruit to fully learn an instrument,” he explained.
Rooting to repeat a historic feat
Tripert said a renowned Australian pipe tutor named Barry Paul Gray offered to train Sri Dasmesh after watching the band perform at the Anzac Day parade in Sydney in 2009.
Initially, Gray selected several members of Sri Dasmesh to play for his band at the Australian National Championships in 2014 – which they also won.
The following year, Sri Dasmesh qualified for the finals in the World Pipe Band Championship and finished eleventh globally.
In 2019, the band clinched victory in the championship under the tutelage of Pipe Major Nat Russell and Drum Sergeant Andrew Womersley.
Both Russell and Womersley are Australian pipe band legends who won the same championship in Grade 1 Category in 1998 with the famous Victoria Police Pipe Band.
If Sri Dasmesh succeeds again this year, Tripert said the victory will be their Merdeka gift for Malaysia since the competition will be taking place a fortnight before August 31.
[Source: Malay Mail]
