BIKANER, Rajasthan— Pawan Vyas, a 20-year-old Indian youth, recently set a world record and tied a 478.5-meter-long turban under half an hour without using a single hairpin or glue.
He was recently awarded Rajasthan Gaurav Award. The certificate of inclusion was presented by Princess of Bikaner, Siddhi Kumari – MLA and entrepreneur Savita Purohit.
Rajasthan, with its varied traditions, has a prolonged culture of tying safas (or turbans) around one’s head as a mark of prestige and honor. The golden pages of history that showcase the emergence of this attire trace back to the 7th century under the rule of Rajputs. It was during this era that the intrinsically patterned turbans were patronized and promoted as a symbol of status and identity.
This culture is now on a sharp decline with ravages of time that an artist from Bikaner is trying hard to keep in the limelight. Mr. Vyas, in an attempt to draw the long-due attention to the dying art, has set an extraordinary record in The World Book of Records-London by tying the world’s longest turban.
The 20-year-old has been practicing the art of turban draping for the last 12 years now and knows 108 different ways to tie a turban around one’s head. In the recent past, Mr. Vyas made it to the India Book of Records for tying the smallest Rajasthani turbans on fingers.
