Gurdwara Sahib, Glenwood (Sydney)ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਸਾਹਿਬ, ਗਲੈਨਵੁੱਡ (ਸਿਡਨੀ)

Gurdwara Sahib at Glenwood, on Meurants Lane in Sydney's north west, is the Sikh Centre of western Sydney and an entry in our guide to Gurdwaras in Australia. Run by the Australian Sikh Association, it draws a weekly congregation of between 5,000 and 10,000 people, and its white walls and golden domes make it one of the most recognisable Sikh buildings in the country.

What is Gurdwara Sahib at Glenwood?

It is a gurdwara, the Sikh place of worship, centred on the Guru Granth Sahib Ji, the Sikh scripture honoured as the eternal Guru, where the community gathers to pray, meditate and listen to the teachings and hymns of the scripture. The Australian Sikh Association, which runs it, describes itself on its own site as the largest registered not for profit body of the Sikhs in the Southern Hemisphere, and calls the Glenwood temple the Sikh Centre: the hub of religious and community activities all year round for the Greater Western and North Western regions of the Sydney metropolitan area.

The Australian Sikh Association

The association behind Glenwood is more than a temple committee. In a joint submission with UNITED SIKHS to the Australian Attorney General in October 2019, the ASA called itself the pre eminent representative body for Sikhs in Australia, with over 2,000 registered members in the Sydney metropolitan area alone. The same submission records that the weekly congregation at Gurdwara Sahib Glenwood ranges between 5,000 and 10,000 people, depending on the time of year, and that alongside the temple the ASA runs charitable, social, sporting and educational programs and activities which are accessible to all Australians, without any discrimination. Its stated purposes include promoting understanding of Sikh philosophy, identity, religion and culture in Australia, and representing the Sikh faith to government and other organisations.

A landmark in white and gold

The present temple was built between 1996 and 1998, in a design that blends Mughal and Rajput elements: white walls crowned with golden onion domes, and a great arched entrance front that carries the temple's name above a circular Ik Onkar, the Sikh sign of the one God. Inside are a sprawling prayer hall, a community kitchen and a library, the Bhai Gurdas Ji Library by the entrance. The complex is floodlit after dark, and photographs of it lit against the night sky, domes glowing above the arch, have become the standard image of Sikh Sydney.

The day a prime minister came to Glenwood

On Sunday 19 May 2013, Prime Minister Julia Gillard visited Gurdwara Sahib Glenwood and became, as the local press reported, the first Australian prime minister to visit a gurdwara in Sydney; the Member for Greenway, Michelle Rowland, who accompanied her, called her the first prime minister ever to visit a gurdwara in Australia. The invitation had gone out only hours earlier, on a working day, yet about 1,500 people were there to receive her. She toured the kitchen and was told about the langar, then, wearing a headscarf, knelt and paid her respects before the Guru Granth Sahib Ji and sat with the congregation for the hymns. The ASA president, Balvinder Singh, addressed her, and the Prime Minister thanked the Sikh community of Western Sydney and of Australia for its contribution to the nation, wishing everyone a happy Vaisakhi.

Prayer, langar and learning

Between the great days, Glenwood runs on the daily round of a working gurdwara. The ASA lists its free services for the community as prayer halls, food charity through the langar, a library and schools, and families book the temple for weddings, for langar seva, the sponsoring of the community meal, and for kirtan seva. Visitors are asked to follow the temple's code of conduct while they are there. Festivals fill the grounds: in 2024 the temple was lit up with a full light display for the first time in its history, for a special weekend celebration that drew over 5,000 people across the weekend.

How do you visit Gurdwara Sahib at Glenwood?

You visit at 18 Meurants Lane, Glenwood, New South Wales 2768, in Sydney's north west. Everyone is welcome, Sikh or not, and the temple asks only that visitors follow its worship code of conduct: cover your head, remove your shoes, and respect the prayer hall. Stay for langar, the free vegetarian meal served to all, which is the heart of what the Sikh Centre exists to do. Weekends, when the congregation runs into the thousands, are the fullest and most welcoming time for a first visit.