Gurdwaras in the Bay Areaਖਾੜੀ ਇਲਾਕੇ ਦੇ ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰੇ

Gurdwaras in the Bay Area are the Sikh temples of the San Francisco Bay Area in California, from the largest gurdwara in North America at San Jose to the golden domes of El Sobrante. This city guide covers the three temples with full entries on Jugti, inside our national guide to Gurdwaras in the USA.

What are the gurdwaras of the Bay Area?

A gurdwara is the Sikh place of worship, and the name means the doorway to the Guru. Its prayer hall centres on the Guru Granth Sahib Ji, the Sikh scripture honoured as the eternal Guru, every gurdwara flies the Nishan Sahib, the saffron flag that marks a Sikh temple, and every gurdwara serves langar, a free vegetarian meal open to everyone who comes, without distinction. Around San Francisco Bay those simple rules take three very different forms: a vast modern campus above Silicon Valley, a big regional temple open every day of the year, and a hilltop landmark in the East Bay. What they share is the sangat, the congregation, drawn from across the whole bay rather than from one neighbourhood.

How did Sikhs come to California and the Bay Area?

The Bay Area is where the American Sikh story begins. Sikhs from Punjab first entered California in 1899 through the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay, as the California Legislature records in its Sikh American Awareness resolutions. The pioneers worked first on railroad construction and in lumber mills, and by 1910 many had turned to farming in the Sacramento, San Joaquin and Imperial valleys, where the flat land and the climate recalled Punjab itself. Their first temple came inland: in 1912 the Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society founded the Stockton gurdwara, the first gurdwara in the United States, whose full story is told in our USA guide. Stockton also backed scholarships at the University of California, Berkeley, open to students of every community.

The pioneers built under hard law: Sikhs and other South Asian immigrants could not naturalise as United States citizens until 1946. The modern Bay Area community is largely the work of the generations who arrived after the immigration laws opened, settling through the East Bay and the South Bay as the region changed around them. Fremont, where the gurdwara dates to 1978, was a nearly all white city in 1970 and today has no ethnic majority. In the South Bay, Sikh families grew with Silicon Valley itself, and it is their children and grandchildren who fill the great halls at San Jose today.

San Jose: the largest gurdwara in North America

Sikh Gurdwara Sahib San Jose, at 3636 Gurdwara Avenue in the Evergreen district, is the largest gurdwara in North America. It was founded in 1984 by Jit Singh Bainiwal, Teja Singh, Pyara Singh Obhi and other sevadars of a South Bay community that had outgrown rented halls and a small building on White Road. The congregation bought forty acres in the Evergreen Hills, built a first phase that opened in 2004, and completed the second phase in April 2011, bringing the complex to about 90,000 square feet. The main Diwan Hall draws some 10,000 people on a Sunday, the school wing teaches about 700 children Punjabi, kirtan and gurbani each week, and the campus adds a langar hall, basketball courts and a free health clinic, all looking out over the South Bay.

Fremont and El Sobrante: temples for the whole bay

Gurdwara Sahib of Fremont, at 300 Gurdwara Road, was established in 1978 and describes itself as one of the most prominent and influential gurdwaras in the United States. Its more than 10,000 registered members are drawn from seven counties, Alameda, Santa Clara, San Mateo, San Francisco, Contra Costa, Marin and Solano, and the temple is open every day of the year. About 3,000 people come on a Sunday, children take after school and SAT classes through the week, seniors get help in Punjabi from the city's Community Ambassadors, and in 2014 the temple put its roof to work with an 82 kilowatt solar system. North across the bay, the Sikh Center of the San Francisco Bay Area at El Sobrante was established in May 1979, when East Bay families who had held ceremonies in their homes built a temple of their own. Its large golden domes crown a pink, cream and beige tiled building on a wooded hilltop at 3550 Hillcrest Road, its prayer hall is lit by a skylight, and it serves langar free every day, with visitors welcome daily from 5:00 am to 8:30 pm.

All Gurdwaras in the Bay Area

Sikh Gurdwara Sahib San Jose, San Jose, California - the largest gurdwara in North America, founded 1984, its 90,000 sq ft Evergreen complex completed in April 2011

Gurdwara Sahib of Fremont, Fremont, California - established 1978 at 300 Gurdwara Road, with over 10,000 registered members serving seven Bay Area counties

Sikh Center of the San Francisco Bay Area, El Sobrante, California - golden domed hilltop temple established in May 1979, serving the whole Bay Area from the East Bay hills

Festivals in the Bay Area: Vaisakhi and Bandi Chhor Divas

The Bay Area year turns on Vaisakhi, the April festival that marks the founding of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh Ji in 1699. At Fremont the day runs on daylong prayers, tents of Punjabi food at the entrance, and bhangra and gatka performances by groups from across the bay in the royal blue and orange of the Khalsa, while sevadars serve langar through the day. In autumn the same temples mark Bandi Chhor Divas, the festival kept alongside Diwali that remembers Guru Hargobind Ji winning the freedom of 52 prisoners, with the halls lit and the sangat gathered in the evening. Between the great days, Gurpurabs, weddings, Akhand Path readings and summer camps fill the calendar at all three temples.

How do you visit a gurdwara in the Bay Area?

You are welcome at any of the three, Sikh or not, and there is no charge and no need to book. Cover your head, remove your shoes, wash your hands, and sit on the floor of the prayer hall for as much of the diwan as you wish, then stay for langar and eat with everyone else, on the same level: that shared meal is the heart of the visit. San Jose gives you scale and the view over Silicon Valley, and head coverings are provided at its entrance. Fremont is the easiest everyday visit, open all 365 days of the year. El Sobrante gives you the hilltop, the golden domes and the view over the valley and San Pablo Bay. Start with whichever is nearest: the welcome is the same at all three.