Gurdwara Janamasthan Bebe Nanaki, Dera Chahalਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਜਨਮ ਅਸਥਾਨ ਬੇਬੇ ਨਾਨਕੀ, ਡੇਰਾ ਚਾਹਲ

Gurdwara Janamasthan Bebe Nanaki, also called Gurdwara Dera Chahal Patshahi Pehli, is a functioning Sikh shrine in Dera Chahal village in Lahore district, Pakistan. It marks the birthplace of Bebe Nanaki Ji, the elder sister of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, in the village of his maternal grandparents. Guru Nanak visited Dera Chahal many times, and Sikh pilgrims were allowed to return here in 2012. It is one of the Lahore district shrines listed in our guide to Gurdwaras in Pakistan.

What is Gurdwara Janamasthan Bebe Nanaki?

It is the birthplace shrine of Bebe Nanaki Ji (1467 to 1518), who is remembered in Sikh tradition as the first person to recognise the divine light in her younger brother and as Guru Nanak's first follower. Janamasthan means birthplace, and the gurdwara stands in the settlement where her mother, Mata Tripta Ji, was born and where Bebe Nanaki herself was born in Samvat 1524, the year 1467. Because the Guru's mother and in-laws were tied to this village, Dera Chahal belongs to the family's own story, not only to the Guru's travels.

The village of the nanake

In Punjabi family life the nanake, the mother's parental home, holds a special warmth, and Dera Chahal was exactly that for Guru Nanak. Local accounts place the village about 35 km from Lahore on the road towards Ghawindi, in the Burki area of Lahore district, not far from the present border with India. Guru Nanak came here repeatedly through his life, and tradition holds that he also stayed here for a time around his wedding. A child who grows up visiting his grandparents' village leaves roots in it, and the shrine grew out of those roots: the sangat built a gurdwara where the Guru's beloved sister had been born and where the Guru himself had walked as a family member, not a stranger.

Bebe Nanaki Ji: the sister who saw first

Sikh tradition is unanimous on one point: before anyone else, Bebe Nanaki Ji saw what her brother was. Five years older than Nanak, she protected him from their father's anger, explained his ways to their parents, and treated him, in the words of the sakhis, as both brother and Guru. In 1475 she married Bhai Jai Ram Ji of Sultanpur Lodhi, and it was through the couple that Nanak later found work in the stores of Daulat Khan Lodi at Sultanpur, the town where his own mission broke open at the Kali Bein. Tradition also credits her with buying him a rabab, encouraging the music that became the voice of his teaching. When pilgrims stand at Dera Chahal, they are honouring the woman who stood behind the Guru before the world knew his name. Read more in our entry on Guru Nanak Dev Ji.

The building, the lost sarovar and the school

The gurdwara is a domed building standing in the heart of the village. A sarovar once lay to the right of the darbar hall, but it has since vanished, a loss the older accounts record with regret. Before Partition, the shrine held extensive land: modern listings put the endowment at 100 acres, while older village accounts speak of 30 bighas still attached in recent decades. Part of the building today houses a girls school, so the site serves Dera Chahal in two ways at once, as a place of memory for Sikhs and as a working school for the village's daughters. By the 1990s the fabric had fallen into very poor shape, and in 1996 the Government of Pakistan spent Rs 0.5 million from public funds on repairs.

Partition and the return of pilgrims

Partition in 1947 emptied Punjab's western gurdwaras of their congregations, and Dera Chahal shared that silence for decades. What makes this shrine different from many of its neighbours is that the silence ended. In September 2012 the Pakistani government opened four more historic gurdwaras to Indian Sikh pilgrims, and pilgrimage to Bebe Nanaki's birthplace was restored. The shrine is listed as operational, a functioning place of worship, even though daily services are modest and the school shares the premises. For families in Indian Punjab whose grandparents spoke of the nanake village, the reopening turned a name in a story into a place they could actually visit.

How do pilgrims reach Dera Chahal?

Pilgrims reach Dera Chahal by road from Lahore, travelling east through the Burki side of the district towards Ghawindi. Visits by Indian citizens are normally made as part of an official jatha with the permissions arranged for Pakistan yatra, so travellers should confirm the current arrangements before planning a trip, as access rules change. The shrine combines well with the other Lahore shrines in this series: Gurdwara Dera Sahib at the Lahore Fort and the Janam Asthan of Guru Ram Das Ji in Chuna Mandi.