Gurdwara Sikh Cultural Society, Richmond Hillਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਸਿੱਖ ਕਲਚਰਲ ਸੋਸਾਇਟੀ, ਰਿਚਮੰਡ ਹਿੱਲ

The Gurdwara Sikh Cultural Society stands at 95-30 118th Street in South Richmond Hill, Queens, New York, one of the oldest gurdwaras on the United States East Coast. Its society was registered in 1965, and its temple opened in 1972 in a former Methodist church, at the heart of the neighbourhood now known as Little Punjab. The present building rose on the same site after fire destroyed the first temple in March 2002. It is one of the entries in our guide to Gurdwaras in the USA.

What is the Sikh Cultural Society gurdwara?

It is the gurdwara of the Sikh Cultural Society of New York, the organisation New York Sikhs built for themselves in the 1960s. Regular morning and evening services are held every day, with langar, the free vegetarian meal open to all, served after the Friday evening and Sunday diwans in the society's own account of its services. A Sunday school teaches children Punjabi, kirtan, Sikh history and Punjabi folk music and dance, and the building holds a library of nearly 2,000 books. Visiting ragi jathas, the travelling groups of hymn singers, are sponsored by the society every year.

History: from a 1954 gathering to the 1972 temple

The society's history, as it tells it, begins in 1954, when a handful of New York Sikhs first celebrated the birthday of Guru Nanak Dev Ji together. Regular meetings started only in 1963, when no more than about ten families met every month in private houses for satsang. When the number grew to about twenty families, a society was registered under the name Sikh Cultural Society in 1965, and congregations moved to Sundays in members' homes. The society was incorporated as a non profit, tax exempt organisation in November 1968, and Sunday congregations were then arranged in rented halls and at St Michael's School in Flushing.

By April 1972 enough funds had been raised, and under the guidance of Dr Harbans Singh the society bought an old Methodist church in Richmond Hill, Queens, for a cash payment of 65,000 dollars, to serve as its gurdwara. The history names the giving behind it: Sham Sani of Florida contributed 25,000 dollars at that time and 33,000 dollars later, and Sajjan Singh Sarna contributed 16,500 dollars and helped raise the rest. That purchase gave New York Sikhs a permanent home, and the temple became a centre the society itself describes as assisting other new Sikh societies coming up on the East Coast, with money and with religious services.

Fire in 2002 and the rebuilding

In March 2002 fire destroyed the temple, a loss felt across a community still living in the shadow of the September 2001 attacks, when Sikhs in America were often attacked through mistaken identity. The society did not leave Richmond Hill. Ground was broken in 2004 on the same site for a new temple reported by the Queens Chronicle, in a report kept by Harvard's Pluralism Project, as a 15 million dollar project, funded from insurance payments and donations, and described while it rose as the East Coast's biggest gurdwara. A preservation account of Little Punjab records that the current temple on the site was built after the 2002 fire, and the congregation worships there today.

Significance: a founding institution of the East Coast

Richmond Hill matters because so much else began here. Seeking stronger ties between Sikh societies across the United States and Canada, the society initiated and hosted the first two Sikh conventions in New York, which resulted in the formation of the Sikh Council of North America. Its history also records the hard years after 1984, when the society provided a platform for community protest and gave legal, financial and moral aid to Sikhs facing trials in the United States. Around the temple, the neighbourhood took Punjabi shape: in 2020 part of 101st Avenue was co named Punjab Avenue and a portion of 97th Avenue near the temple became Gurdwara Street, and in 2023 a section of 118th Street was designated Guru Nanak Way, honouring Guru Nanak Dev Ji.

A Sunday at the gurdwara today

A 2022 report from Columbia's Covering Religion project, written from a Sunday visit, describes worshippers removing their shoes and gathering in the massive darbar hall, where the day's hukamnama, the verse taken as the day's guidance, is displayed in Gurmukhi script with its English translation on the wall. Young singers performed kirtan with harmoniums and tabla, worshippers went down to the basement kitchen for langar, and at the close the Guru Granth Sahib Ji, draped in its rumala cloth, was carried to its resting room on an upper floor until morning. It is a working picture of the same daily rhythm the society set out in its early services: prayer, music, food shared by all, and teaching for the children.

How do you reach the Richmond Hill gurdwara?

The gurdwara stands at 95-30 118th Street, South Richmond Hill, New York 11419, in Queens, a short walk from the 101st Avenue corridor of Little Punjab, with its Punjabi shops and restaurants; the nearest street corner, at 101st Avenue, carries the name Guru Nanak Way. Everyone is welcome. As at any gurdwara, cover your head, remove your shoes and wash your hands before entering the prayer hall, sit quietly for the kirtan, and join the langar afterwards if you wish.