Against the lit London skyline and ancient walls of the Tower of London, ‘Tigerstyle' launched this year's Anglo Sikh Heritage events series ‘Heritage Shared' with a live concert inspired by the life of the last Maharajah of Punjab.

Taking place across the country during the whole of September, the range of unique events left audiences full of inspiration and hungry for more information! Highlights include, ‘The Singh Twins', bringing to the fore through art, the traumatic events in Amritsar 1984, UK film premier of ‘The Prisoner's Song', outdoor theatre performances of ‘The Maharajah & the Kohinoor' and a superb talk about the origins of Sikh martial tradition and Baba Deep Singh.

Priya Mann, Student ‘there are missing pieces in my knowledge about the history of the Sikhs; through these events I'm gradually completing the jigsaw illustrating this fascinating heritage'

For event reviews and picture gallery visit www.asht.info/heritage_shared

This year's lecture on 29th September, "A Tradition of Valour" was the tenth in the series. It summarised the main themes of the series to an attentive mixed audience of leading representatives from diverse fields. Enthralled, the audience heard of the Saragarhi 21 and other martyrdoms in the Sikh military tradition.

Other more recent events in the Sikh calendar like 1984, were mentioned. There was also a reminder of the Sikh aspiration to keep Sikh military tradition alive in the UK. The issue of setting up a Sikh regiment, fighting as part of the British troops in Afghanistan, remains a live issue. We were reminded that the battle of Saragarhi was fought in the same area where the British troops are in action today."

Taken from an article by Gurmukh Singh featured in The Sikh Times

Conservation architect and ASHT supporter Gurmeet Rai is helping to save some of Punjab's historical heritage in India. She has persuaded a number of funders to let her lead a team that would survey all the unprotected monuments along the Grand Trunk Road in Punjab.  She now heads the Cultural Resource Conservation Initiative (CRCI), a multidisciplinary conservation consultancy with projects all over the country, but it is preserving the relics of Sikh history that means the most to her. "Freezing buildings in time may not work here the way it does in the West," Gurmeet says. "There are too many pressures for change.... Our historic buildings need to mean something to the people who live around them. We need to involve them in our work, to make them understand its importance." Gurmeet Rai

Original Article by By Geoffrey C. Ward featured in the Smithsonian magazine

The recently launched Panjab Digital Library (PDL) is the first ever online collection of millions of rare pages on the Sikhs and the region of Panjab. It will include texts of manuscripts, books, magazines, newspapers and photographs and will be available to anyone with Internet access.

"Since long, preservation of heritage, research and education have been a victim of apathy in Panjab.... With the launch of the online digital library, we have tried to fill some of that gap..." Harinder Singh, co-founder and Executive Director of SikhRI

For further information visit www.panjabdigilib.org

For more information email info@asht.info

The Widow Colony - An award-winning documentary film about the legacy of Sikh killings in November of 1984 following the assassination of Indira Gandhi. Screening at The Drum, Birmingham from Friday 16th to Sunday 18th October.

Further information at www.asht.info/events

New Additions to the Trail

The Dissenters Chapel, in Kensal Green, is home to a memorial plaque to the Memory of Maharani Jindan Kaur who was briefly interred in the catacombs in 1863.

St Martin in the Fields - situated in London's world famous Trafalgar Square this church was the venue for a memorial service in 1918 for one of Maharajah Duleep Singh's sons Prince Victor, after his death in Monte Carlo. 

Further information at www.asht.info/trail