Gurdwaras in the USAਅਮਰੀਕਾ ਦੇ ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰੇ

Gurdwaras in the USA are the Sikh temples of the United States, from Gurdwara Sahib Stockton in California, founded in 1912 as the first gurdwara in the country, to the Sikh Gurdwara Sahib of San Jose, the largest gurdwara in North America. This guide covers the history of Sikhs in the USA and the major gurdwaras in this Kosh, with visitor information.

What are the gurdwaras of the USA?

A gurdwara is the Sikh place of worship, literally the doorway to the Guru. Its prayer hall centres on the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scripture treated as the eternal Guru, and its langar hall serves a free vegetarian meal to everyone who comes, without distinction. Every gurdwara flies the Nishan Sahib, the saffron Sikh flag, and every gurdwara is open to people of all faiths and none. In the USA those simple rules built something large: temples founded by Punjabi farm workers in California more than a century ago, and, in our own time, some of the biggest Sikh buildings anywhere outside India.

History of Sikhs in the USA

The first Sikh immigrants, mostly from Punjab in northwestern India, arrived in the 1890s through the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay, as the United States Senate recorded when it marked the Stockton Gurdwara centenary in 2012. Many crossed the Pacific hoping for a better and freer life, and many found their way inland to farm. The flat, fertile San Joaquin Valley of California, with its Mediterranean climate, reminded the new arrivals of Punjab itself, and Sikh farming families put down roots there, in the Sacramento Valley and in the Bay Area.

Those pioneers faced a hard country as well as a promising one, and their gurdwara became far more than a prayer hall. The Stockton temple supported scholarships at the University of California, Berkeley that were open to students of every community, backed the Ghadar movement for Indian independence, and counted among its members Bhagat Singh Thind, the first Sikh to serve in the United States Army during the First World War, and Dalip Singh Saund, the first Asian American elected to Congress. For decades Stockton was, in the Senate's words, the birthplace of Sikhism in America, and for a long period it was the community's only temple in the western United States.

The modern map is the work of the generations that followed. As Sikh families settled across the country, gurdwaras rose in mill and factory towns, in farming valleys and in the suburbs of the great cities: in the Midwest, in Arizona, in New York and New Jersey, in Michigan and in the Pacific Northwest. California remains the heartland. San Jose's gurdwara, founded in 1984 by a rapidly growing community, was completed in its present form in April 2011, and Yuba City's annual Nagar Kirtan now draws crowds reported at between 100,000 and over 200,000 people across its weekend.

California: where American Sikh history began

California holds both ends of the American Sikh story. At one end stands Gurdwara Sahib Stockton, the first gurdwara in the United States, founded on 24 October 1912 by the Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society and still an active temple and a California Historical Landmark. At the other end stands San Jose, in the Evergreen district above Silicon Valley, whose 90,000 square foot complex is described by the city of San Jose as the largest gurdwara in North America. Between them, in the Sacramento Valley, Yuba City's Gurdwara Sahib on Tierra Buena Road hosts the Nagar Kirtan each autumn, a hymn singing procession led by the Panj Pyare that carries the Guru Granth Sahib through the town's streets while volunteers serve langar along the route.

Beyond California, entries follow in this series for Palatine in Illinois, Phoenix in Arizona, Richmond Hill in New York, Basking Ridge in New Jersey, Sterling Heights in Michigan and Renton in Washington, each verified against its own sources before it is published. Until an entry is live, it is not linked from this page.

All Gurdwaras in the USA

• Gurdwara Sahib Stockton, California - the first gurdwara in the United States, founded in 1912
• Sikh Gurdwara Sahib San Jose, California - the largest gurdwara in North America, founded in 1984
• Gurdwara Sahib Yuba City, California - opened in 1970; home of the annual Nagar Kirtan each November
• Gurdwara Sahib of Fremont, California - established in 1978; serves the whole San Francisco Bay Area
• Sikh Center of the San Francisco Bay Area, El Sobrante, California - golden domed hilltop temple established in 1979
• Sikh Religious Society of Chicago, Palatine, Illinois - the largest gurdwara in Midwest America; society 1972, temple opened 1979
• Guru Nanak Dwara, Phoenix, Arizona - established 1970; the longest continuously operating gurdwara in Arizona
• Gurdwara Sikh Cultural Society, Richmond Hill, New York - one of the oldest gurdwaras on the East Coast; society 1965, temple opened 1972, rebuilt after the 2002 fire
• Garden State Sikh Association Gurdwara, Basking Ridge, New Jersey - incorporated 1974; 13 acre campus, Darbar halls of 1986 and 2008, Khalsa School
• Sikh Society of Michigan, Sterling Heights, Michigan - first gurdwara in Metro Detroit, a converted church in 1979; purpose built temple opened 2012

Gurdwara Singh Sabha of Washington, Renton, Washington - the largest congregation run gurdwara in Washington state, serving greater Seattle since 1993

Visiting a gurdwara in the USA

You do not need to be Sikh, or to book, or to pay. Cover your head, remove your shoes, wash your hands if facilities are offered, and sit on the floor of the prayer hall to listen to the kirtan, the singing of the hymns. Head coverings are provided free at larger gurdwaras, San Jose among them, and every visitor is welcome to share the langar meal afterwards. That open door is not a modern courtesy added for tourists. At Stockton in 1915 the temple's free dining room was already feeding, in the words of its own sangat at the time, any hungry person who came, Sikh or not.

What was the first gurdwara in the USA?

Gurdwara Sahib Stockton in Stockton, California. The Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society bought the South Grant Street lot in September 1912 and the first prayer was held there on 24 October 1912.

What is the largest gurdwara in North America?

The Sikh Gurdwara Sahib of San Jose, California. Founded in 1984 and completed in its present form in April 2011, its roughly 90,000 square foot complex in the Evergreen district is the largest gurdwara in North America.