New York, Oct 16 (IANS): Author and diplomat Navtej Sarna has received one of the three Sikh Heritage Awards for 'vision' for contributing towards "Elevating the Sikh Experience" from the Sikh Art and Film Foundation.

The awards were presented here Saturday at an awards gala celebrating the rich heritage, traditions and culture of the Sikhs with a star-studded evening of dance, art exhibition and auction.

Sarna, currently India's ambassador to Israel, is the author of two novels "The Exile" (2008 ) and "We Weren't Lovers Like That" (2003). Both the books have been translated into Hindi, while the latter has been translated into Arabic too.

His non-fiction titles include "Folk Tales of Poland" (1993), "The Book of Nanak" (2003) and most recently "The Zafarnama" (2011), a translation from Persian to English of Guru Gobind Singh's letter to Aurungzeb.

Earlier, "The Zafarnama" was featured at a function Friday as part of the Sikh Heritage Week, organised by the Sikh Arts and Film Foundation, a non-profit cultural organization dedicated to creating awareness of and pride in the diversity, culture and history of the Sikhs, as well as the contributions of Sikhs in American society.

Besides Sarna, Heritage Awards were also presented to Jaspal Bindra, CEO Asia, Standard Chartered PLC for Leadership and filmmaker Gurinder Chadha ("Bend It Like Beckham") for Art.

The Sikh Heritage Week celebrations included the eighth annual Sikh International Film Festival and inaugural Leadership Summit.
The festival presented 11 documentary and short films featuring Sikh stories from across the globe, from both established and emerging filmmakers.