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Neha Saini
Tribune News Service
Amritsar, November 15
Writer, historian and documentarian Amardeep Singh is working on a film that traces Guru Nanak’s legacy and footprints across nine countries. The film titled ‘Allegory — A Tapestry of Guru Nanak’s Travels’, has been shot mostly at places that fall under war zone and documents remnants of the spiritual and the cultural connect that communities share through Guru Nanak Dev’s travels.
In Amritsar for screening of his documentaries, which are based on his travels across Pakistan to conduct research for his books, Lost Heritage: The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan and The Quest Continues: Lost Heritage: The Sikh Legacy in Pakistan, Amardeep said his film would be ready for release by 2020.
“Guru Nanak traveled far and wide for spiritual wisdom and he engaged with spiritualists wherever he went. Yet we do not have a narrative apart from those written by men of faith regarding his journey. One question that always worried me was why the current generation seems to have forgotten everything, except for Panja Sahib, Kartarpur Sahib and Nankana Sahib. “My journey on this path began when I was tracing the cultural roots of Sikh history while working on my books. But I did not want to limit my narrative of our intangible heritage to just that. It had to be about the message of oneness that we seem to have forgotten,” he said.
Traveling across conflict areas in Afghanistan, Tibet, China, Iran and Sri Lanka, Amardeep said it was challenging to visit the sites that bear spiritual footprints of Guru Nanak Dev. “Around 75% of the geographical areas that Guru Nanak covered during his journey lies in conflict zone. We were able to identify 45 interfaith sites in various countries such as Balochistan, Pakistan, China, Tibet, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. But since my travels are unscripted, it was really difficult to get access to places such as Mecca, Medina, Kandhar and Ghazni, that are significant to my research, so I had to rely on local community. The ‘Nanakpanthi’ lifestyle is still alive in these places that we do not know about.”
It has taken Amardeep three months to chart out the path of Guru Nanak’s spiritual journey. “I am hoping that by 2020, we will be able to release the film.”
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