KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29— Sikh Naujawan Sabha Malaysia (SNSM) of the Malaysian Sikh Youth Organisation of Malaysia will hold 36 “kirtan” or hymn singing performances throughout October featuring three well-known Sikh singers and musicians as part of its 50^th anniversary celebrations beginning Wednesday.

They will be held at Sikh temples, or “gurdwaras”, stretching from Kangar to Johor Baru until Oct 29.

The performers are Malaysian-born Dya Singh; and tabla player Paramjot Singh and Sandeep Singh, who plays the taus, a Sikh musical instrument, both from Ludhiana, India.

Paramjot Singh has been acknowledged by the Guinness book of Records as having played the tabla no-stop for 313 hours, 13 minutes and 13 seconds.

Dya Singh, who is now based in Melbourne, said upon his arrival here today that he was a participant at the first Malaysian Sikh youth camp in the Port Dickson Gurdwara Sahib in 1963 and was honoured that SNSM got in touch with him to do a ‘kirtan” tour to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the organisation.

“We would also like to promote this year’s youthcamp, which again will be held at the Technical College in Port Dickson from Dec 14 to 21.”

Dya Singh, a former journalist and accountant, has been responsible for taking Sikh traditional spiritual music outside the confines of gurdwaras and making it accessible to younger generations of Sikhs as well as non-Sikh audiences.

Details of the “kirtan” performances are available from SNSM’s Malkith Singh (0122880557). – Bernama