Shree Muktajeevan Pipe Band

LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 12: Hemanshu Hirani, a piper from the Shree Muktajeeven Swamibapa pipe band, poses for a portrait during Guru Purnima, an Indian festival dedicated to spiritual leaders, at Shree Swaminarayan Mandir, a major new Hindu temple being built in Kingsbury on July 12, 2014 in London, England. The pipe band was established in 1972 in honour of Shree Muktajeeven Swamibapa who, after enjoying a performance by a Scottish pipe band in Trafalgar Square during a visit to London in 1969, inspired his disciples in the United Kingdom to form a pipe band. The original nine members in the band - drum major, four pipers, and four snares - were trained by world-renowned pipe band competition judge Major James Caution. Today the band has around fifty playing members who all live in the North London area and have strong ties to India. The band's repertoire comprises both traditionally Scottish pipe music and Indian melodies, bhajans, and original compositions and transpositions of Hindi film songs by band members. The Swaminarayan faith, a branch of Hinduism, was established by Lord Shree Swaminarayan, at the end of the 18th century in Northern India. For much of the 20th Century the faith was led by Jeevanpran Shree Muktajeevan Swamibapa who toured all over India as well as establishing Swaminarayan Temples in East Africa the United Kingdom and the United State of America. The Shree Swaminarayan temple (Mandir) Kingsbury, in the London borough of Brent, is the principal place of worship in the south of England. The Mandir complex, set to fully open at a festival in August, has cost £20 million to build, all of the money being raised by the community and through the sale of its previous site in Golders Green, which is being developed for housing. (Photo by Rob Stothard/Getty Images)