Dastarਦਸਤਾਰ

The dastar is the Sikh turban: a length of cloth tied by hand, turn by turn, around the head to cover a Sikh's uncut hair, called kesh. It is the most visible sign of Sikh identity anywhere in the world, and for the person who ties it each morning it is far more than clothing. It carries faith, discipline and a promise to stand up for others, and it marks the wearer as a follower of the Gurus who should be easy to find when someone needs help.

Why do Sikhs wear a turban?

Sikhs wear a turban first of all to cover and care for kesh, the uncut hair that is one of the Five Ks, the five articles of faith given to the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh Ji in 1699. The hair is gathered into a bun or topknot on top of the head, combed with the wooden kangha, and then wrapped in the dastar, which keeps it clean, tidy and protected through the day. The Sikh Coalition explains it plainly: keeping kesh and wearing a dastar together form the outward identity of a Sikh.

The dastar itself is not counted among the Five Ks in mainstream Sikh teaching. Its role grew up around kesh: it is the covering that makes keeping long, uncut hair practical, and over time it became the crown of the Khalsa uniform, the bana. Guru Gobind Singh Ji is remembered in the early Sikh histories with the instruction, in translation: comb your hair twice a day and tie your turban carefully, turn by turn. Tying is therefore a daily act of care, not a one time choice. The Sikh Coalition notes that Sikhs tie their turbans anew each day, and that a turban is usually removed only in the privacy of the home.

Beyond its practical work, the dastar stands for equality, honour, self respect, courage, spirituality and piety. In earlier centuries a turban in Punjab was linked with nobility, and people of low status were often not allowed to wear one. The Gurus turned that order upside down: by giving the turban to every Sikh, whatever their family or former caste, they declared that each follower carried the dignity once reserved for kings. A turbaned Sikh also accepts responsibility, since the wearer can be recognised at once and is expected to help anyone in trouble, as the ideal of the saint soldier requires.

History: from the Gurus to the Khalsa

The dastar has been part of Sikh life since the time of the first Guru, Guru Nanak Dev Ji, and a special dastar was a mark of honour in the passing of Guruship itself. Tradition records that Guru Angad Dev Ji honoured Guru Amar Das Ji with a turban, a siropa, when he was declared the next Guru, and that Guru Arjan Dev Ji was likewise honoured with the dastar of Guruship. To give a turban was to give honour, and to receive one was to accept a trust.

The turban gained still greater prominence under Guru Hargobind Ji, the sixth Guru, who joined spiritual authority with readiness to defend the community, the teaching remembered as Miri Piri. Then, on Vaisakhi 1699 at Anandpur Sahib, Guru Gobind Singh Ji founded the Khalsa Panth and gave the initiated Sikhs their five articles of faith, among them kesh, the unshorn hair which the dastar covers. From that day the turbaned figure of the Khalsa, Singh for a man and Kaur for a woman, became the public face of the faith: distinct by design, so that a Sikh could never quietly blend into a crowd when courage or service was needed.

In later centuries the dastar was defended at real cost. Sikh soldiers served in two world wars wearing turbans rather than helmets, and individual Sikhs have refused to remove the dastar even in prison. For many families it is bound up with memory, sacrifice and honour, not only with dress.

Styles of dastar

There is no single approved shape. The Sikh Coalition notes that Sikhs can wear any colour or style of turban, and that colours carry no fixed required meaning, so families and regions have developed their own ways of tying. Among the styles most often described are the Nok Pagg, a double width dastar common in Punjab with a pointed front, called a nok; the Patiala Shahi style, with neat, clear folds; and the plainer, rounded gol parna worn casually. Names and details vary by source and by family, and the same cloth can look quite different in two hands.

The dumalla is a taller, more layered turban, linked with the Nihang tradition. Its warrior form, the Chand Tora Dumalla, carries a metal crescent and sword symbol at the front, and the older Dastar Bunga was the original turban of the Khalsa fighting force. A smaller under turban, the keski, is often tied first, and children usually begin with a patka, a simple covering for the topknot.

Dastar Bandi: a child's first turban

Dastar Bandi, which means the tying of the turban, is the ceremony that marks a young Sikh's move from a child's patka to a full dastar. SikhiWiki describes it as usually held when a boy is between eleven and sixteen, though it can be done at any age. The child is taken to a gurdwara and seated before the Guru Granth Sahib Ji. After Ardas, the prayer of supplication, an elder, often the granthi or a senior member of the family, ties the first full turban while the granthi explains why a Sikh keeps long hair and wears the turban.

Families treat the day as a coming of age. Relatives and friends gather, prayers are offered for the Guru's blessing on the child, and from then on the young Sikh is expected to wear the dastar regularly and with pride, and to learn to tie it himself. The point of the ceremony is not the cloth alone. It is a public welcome into the responsibilities the turban represents: keeping kesh, living truthfully and being ready to serve. The ceremony itself, its order and its meaning, is described in full on the Dastar Bandi page.

Women and the dastar

Sikh women have traditionally covered their hair in other ways, most often with a chunni, a long scarf, and the wearing of a full turban by women was not historically common. The Sikh Rehat Maryada speaks explicitly of men wearing a turban, and the Sikh Coalition summarises the position for women as optional: nothing in the code requires it, and nothing forbids it. Some women in the Akali Nihang and other observant traditions have long worn turbans.

In recent decades more Sikh women, especially in the diaspora, have chosen to tie a dastar. Reporting by the BBC, speaking to women in Britain and to researchers at the University of Waterloo and the University of Leeds, found their reasons to be personal and varied: a stronger sense of identity after taking Amrit, help in meditation and discipline, and a wish to claim the equality the Gurus taught, since the Khalsa uniform was given to Sikhs as a whole. For a woman who chooses it, the Coalition says, the turban is just as much a part of her body and identity as it is for a man.

Respect, removal and the law

Because the dastar is an article of faith and not a hat, simple courtesies matter. The Sikh Coalition asks people not to touch someone's turban or hair without permission, and notes that a turban becomes part of a Sikh's body: it is tied fresh each day and usually removed only at home. Being asked to remove it in public, for a search, a photograph or a uniform rule, is therefore a serious matter for the wearer, and where checks are unavoidable they are often handled in a private space or by the wearer patting down their own turban.

Diaspora countries have answered these questions in different ways. In Canada in 1990 the courts upheld the right of Baltej Singh Dhillon, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, to wear a dastar on duty, and Sikh members of the Canadian Armed Forces wear it with their uniforms. In the United Kingdom, the case Mandla v. Dowell Lee, begun in 1982 after a school refused a turbaned pupil, helped establish legal protection for Sikhs as an ethno religious group. Turban wearing riders are exempt from motorcycle helmet laws in India, the United Kingdom and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario. Other countries have drawn the line differently, so the dastar remains a regular subject of accommodation cases.

For a visitor to a gurdwara, none of this asks much: cover your head as everyone there does, treat the turbans you see as you would any part of a person's faith, and remember what the cloth is saying. The dastar announces a Sikh who has promised to be visible, equal and ready to help. That is why it is worn with such care, and why it is so much more than a turban.