MALAYSIA’S Sri Dasmesh Pipe Band made the news for achieving what their detractors did not expect them to do.
On Aug 17, 2019, it was announced that Sri Dasmesh Pipe Band were named champions of Grade 4B at the World Pipe Band Championship (otherwise referred to as The Worlds) that was held in Glasgow, Scotland. The band also won for best drumming, as well as best parade in their category.
The story of their victory was picked up by local news outlets after Asia Samachar, an independent news portal for Sikhs in Southeast Asia, carried it.
It was a major victory not only for Malaysia (despite the fact that no Malaysian officials were there to give them support), but for underdogs across the world.
There are several grades of bands competing in The Worlds ranging from Grade 1 bands (that take part and win major competitions regularly), to the less-exposed Grade 4 bands that are newcomers to major competitions.
Sri Dasmesh Pipe Band’s victory was well-earned, as it is not an easy feat to organise and train a band of 30 members who come from various age groups and have different commitments.
It was also the first Malaysian pipe band to win at the World Pipe Band Championship.
Based on the news reports in Scotland, the band made a huge impression on the crowd and won itself quite a few fans. Since their victory it has toured other countries, such as Japan and Australia.
Sri Dasmesh Pipe Band’s drum sergeant is 25-year-old Tripert Singh Khalsa, who is also a pilot attached to Malaysian Airlines System, and has been a part of the 33-year-old band since he was a young child.
His father Harvinder Singh and uncle Sukdev Singh originally studied in the United Kingdom, where they were exposed to pipe band performances.
“When they came back they realised that we lacked youth initiatives like those over there.”
The international Sikh community have annual camps called the Sikh Sammelan, a mainly youth-oriented gathering filled with activities. Tripert’s father and uncle, who were youth leaders, decided that forming a band would be something good for the youth to work on during the local Sammelan.
Tripert said: “My father studied in Scotland and saw the bagpipe bands first hand there. So he decided to bring back a bagpipe band to Malaysia because it would help instil discipline because it required marching and army style mentality.
“Secondly, they played music. So kids would have a distraction, away from drugs, alcohol and other things.”
Tripert added: “My father and uncle started the band in 1986. I was born in 1994. By the time I was born the band was already in full swing.”
Tripert joined the band and began travelling with them when he was eight years old, and officially became a member in 2005 at age 10.
It has truly been a family affair, as his brother Tirath Singh is the pipe major, and his younger sister Jyotsaroop Kaur is a drum tenor. Another sister, Tepasya Kaur, was a bagpiper but has since retired.
It was Tripert who first had the idea for the band to take part in The Worlds competition.
“I told my dad that I would like to make the band [more] competitive,” he said. “Before that we were just performing and taking part in parades.
So I convinced him to go with me to watch the World Championships in 2013. Only then was he convinced that we could do it.
“So we trained for two years to take part in the 2015 championships. The first time we went, we qualified for the finals. That year was the largest turnout for bands in our grade, and we [still] managed to qualify for the finals, which was a shocker to everyone.
“Up to that point I was this mumbling idiot who [was saying] that we could win. Nobody believed me. People laughed and said: ‘This guy will lead you to impending doom, you guys will look like idiots and then come back’.
“When we qualified for the finals, it took us all by surprise. When we came back [to Malaysia], I said we must [return], and this time, win.”
Tripert said Malaysians often have an inferiority complex when competing at the world level.
“I needed to find a way to get them to burn their boats,” he said, referring to a lesson by self-help guru Tony Robbins that the only way to get an army to take an island was to burn the boats that brought them there, so that they would have no option to retreat.
Tripert sat down with the members, and found that for many of them, their desire to win was borne of a need to prove to their family that all the time spent on band practice was worth it.
Asked to describe the moment that they heard of their victory, Tipert said he was receiving the medal for the best drumming at the time.
“Just as I was receiving the medal, they announced the World Champions for 2019,” he recalled.
“When they said Sri Dasmesh, the 9,000 people on the field were going basically nuts and screaming. People were crying and hugging each other.
“I turned around, left the gold medal and ran back and jumped into this big group hug. A steward had to come and tell me to go back and collect the first medal. It was an unbelievable moment.”
