DOCUMENTING THE KUNDALINI YOGA AND THE 3HO COMMUNITY IN CALGARY

With a few recent exceptions, scholarly work dealing with Sikhism in Canada has largely been limited to the geographic areas of the lower mainland British Columbia and the greater Toronto area. Even less has been done on Sikh groups that might be considered non-normative or outside the mainstream (i.e. Punjabi, Khalsa-oriented) tradition. This paper makes a preliminary attempt to address both of these gaps by exploring the kundalini yoga (KY) / 3HO communities in Calgary. Drawing from online sources, personal interviews, and participant observation, the paper chronicles the history and development of KY / 3HO groups in Calgary, documents their constituencies and demographics, and seeks to sketch their associations with mainstream, normative Sikh groups. In the process, the paper points to larger questions for future consideration about the nature of religious identity, power, and authority among Calgary's Sikh / KY / 3HO community.