There are Hindu summer camps in states including New Hampshire and New York, Muslim camps in California, Jain camps in Texas. They rent Boy Scout centers or local fairgrounds, or, in the case of one Hindu group, buy a camp in the Poconos where Jewish parents once sent their children to learn about Judaism. Summer camps have become a kind' of last chance for passing on religious heritage, either because these families live hundreds of miles from their nearest temple or mosque, or because their houses of worship do not have youth education programs, or because both parents are preoccupied with careers or too culturally estranged from their own children. They renamed it Lohgarh Retreat, for the first Sikh fort in the Punjab from which Sikhs defended themselves against attacking Mughals in the 1600's. The camp day is a mix of morning prayer, lessons in Sikh spiritual practice and chanting, sports, and peer group discussions.
Boys get turban-tying lessons.
Everyone learns traditional Punjabi dance steps. On Thursdays, after a lecture on Sikh history, all 60 campers join in an enormous pillow fight. The other day they rode the roller coasters at Hershey Park, soaking their, turbans and scarves on the water rides. For Sikh youth, who in this country are few but conspicuous in their uncut hair and head coverings, camp is a place to share the culture clash they experience with their own Indian-born parents, and the pressures they face coming of age in America, home to only about 150,000 Sikhs out of 16 million around the world. In the glow of citronella candles, to ward off mosquitoes, several of the boys admitted that they felt they were Sikhs only by heredity.