Fabric of Society

Carleton Cole
July 7, 2008
The Nation


Guru Nanak (1469 to 1539), who founded the Sikh faith, picking up karma from Hinduism and monotheism from Islam, said that "The highest religion is to rise to universal brotherhood.

"In his book "Sikhs in Thailand", Manjit S Sidhu says that the vast majority of Sikhs who in the mid-1900s immigrated to Thailand from what is now Punjab state in Pakistan, in part to escape from the chaos that ensued from the partition of the formerly British ruled subcontinent in 1947, indeed arrived in Bangkok to find a very brotherly reception - most of them spent there first nights at the Sikh gurdwara (temple; literally "the guru's home or portal") in Pahurat, Bangkok.


But no slackers, it didn't take long for the men ("there was a great dearth of single Sikh girls in Thailand" at that time, writes Sidhu) arriving from the subcontinent to acquire mostly locally made fabrics on commission, and spend their days walking around and selling their cloth.

"He who earns his livelihood by the sweat of his brow and shares it with others … knows the way," says Guru Nanak. More than half a century after the mass migration of Sikhs to Bangkok, shrines dedicated to Guru Nanak are a main fixture in the dozens of Sikh-owned shops of jostling Talad Pahurat, vying for attention with the Thai-language signs shouting "Lot raka!" ("Sale!") in this retail market for cotton, polyester, rayon and other fabrics.

As with the vast majority of Sikhs, the Sachadev family belongs to the Arora sect, which is known for its business background, as opposed to the minority Jat Sikh people, who have traditionally been farmers and labourers.


The owner of the AR Shop here, Gurmeet Singh Sachadev, says that his business may eventually close, as he has no sons, and his two twenty-something daughters, after having worked here from time to time in their younger years, aren't interested in staying here for a lifetime.

Gurmeet runs the shop with his wife Rupinder, and a couple of assistants. "Even with shop-owning families with sons, the future of the area may change, with families moving out," he says. "It's competitive here. How to survive in this business is to offer something different. Business is very quiet." To prepare himself for the stresses to come, each day he starts each day with 15 to 30 minutes of meditation. "I forget about business and just leave myself open." Besides the day-to-day job, though, what concerns him is the long-term stability of Pahurat not to mention Sikh culture in Thailand.

"Slowly, slowly, Sikhs in Thailand are becoming assimilated. Slowly, slowly the Thai culture is coming into the Sikh culture," says Gurmeet, who observes two of Sikhism's "5 Ks'"- wearing a steel bracelet, and, for men, keeping long hair wound upward in a turban. For three decades he has worked in the family-run shop, which was established by his father, who had fled India after its partition.

Learning by his father's side, Gurmeet has worked in the shop since 1976.Still, he says that for the for the spiritual nourishment that they didn't get while growing up, men in his 30 to 60 year age group are slowly turning to the six-storey golden gurdwara, which is topped with gilded onion domes and sprouts above the Pahurat shops.Gurmeet's cellphone goes off, jolting us back to the present. "Don yen prung-ne okay mai?" ("Is tomorrow evening okay?") he asks before sealing a deal and an agreed time for a delivery to be made.



Gurmeet says he would like if his children would visit the gurdwara more often and appreciate their Sikh heritage, but "I tell them 'Do what you want to do'."Indeed, he says that many children of Pahurat shop-owners want to strike out on their own, both in not becoming devout Sikhs, and for finding a livelihood apart from selling fabrics, or turning them into the suits, as seen in Sikh-run tailor shops ion Bangkok, everywhere from here in Little India, to lower Sukhumvit and Khao San roads. While young Sikhs are going to the temple less often than their parents, and their usage of the Punjabi language is slipping, they tend to marry within the local Sikh community.

In what was once a narrow lane selling religious statutes, icons and trinkets, only one side of the alley survives today, as one side gave way to make a wider lane going along the new India Emporium mall."I think that these shops in Pahurat will not continue into the next generation," says Gurmeet, before grabbing a well-worn metre-stick and going the front of the store to help a customer who is fingering a piece of cloth, who the shop-owner describes "Na tee-soot!" ("The thickest!")

After making the sale, he returns, saying "Thai people are very happy to see us since we are from the land of Buddhism. I feel that Sikhs on Sampaeng Lane have more religion. They are wholesalers of fabrics, so they have more time for going to functions.""The vast majority of Sikh migrants have done well since coming to Thailand," writes Sidhu. But time will just how traditionally Sikh their descendants will be.