Sikh Society of Manitoba, Winnipegਸਿੱਖ ਸੁਸਾਇਟੀ ਆਫ਼ ਮੈਨੀਟੋਬਾ, ਵਿਨੀਪੈੱਗ

The Sikh Society of Manitoba is the Sikh temple at 1244 Mollard Road in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and the province's first, oldest and largest gurdwara. A small group of Sikh immigrants formed the society in 1969 in rented space; in 1983 the community broke ground on a piece of frozen land and built the permanent home it still uses today. It is one of the entries in our guide to Gurdwaras in Canada.

What is the Sikh Society of Manitoba?

The Sikh Society of Manitoba runs a gurdwara, a Sikh place of worship: the word means the doorway to the Guru, and the prayer hall centres on the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scripture honoured as the eternal Guru, while the langar kitchen serves a free vegetarian meal to everyone who comes. The Mollard Road temple is the central meeting place for Winnipeg's Sikh community, a place to gather, worship, learn from each other and teach children the community's traditions and languages. In the Manitoba Legislature in April 2023, the minister marking Sikh Heritage Month described the society as home to the province's first gurdwara, in a province where more than 35,000 residents identify as Sikh, the fourth largest Sikh population in Canada.

Manitoba's Sikh roots before the gurdwara

Sikhs were part of Manitoba long before there was a temple to gather in. The province's 2023 Sikh Heritage Month statement in the Legislature named two intrepid Manitoba pioneers, John Baboo and John Singh, who were among only ten Sikh men permitted to join the Canadian Army in the First World War. They enlisted even though Sikhs were denied Canadian citizenship and the right to vote until 1947, moved, the statement said, by the Sikh principles of justice and equality. For decades after, Manitoba's small Sikh community had no gurdwara of its own, and families carried their worship in homes and rented rooms.

How did Winnipeg get its first gurdwara?

The Sikh Heritage Museum of Canada tells the founding plainly: in 1969 a small group of Sikh immigrants rented a space and formed the Sikh Society of Manitoba, Inc. The rented beginning lasted fourteen years. In 1983 the community broke ground on a piece of frozen land, a very Manitoba detail, and built its permanent home, the gurdwara that still stands at 1244 Mollard Road. The society has been at the heart of the community ever since, its foremost advocate as well as its temple. When the society marked fifty years in 2018, Winnipeg North MP Kevin Lamoureux told Parliament he had been visiting the gurdwara since 1988, and praised the warmth, generosity, kindness and friendship he had witnessed there first hand.

The Khalsa School, the library and the renovated temple

The temple is also a schoolhouse. Its Khalsa School is an educational space where children learn Punjabi and traditional knowledge, and the building holds a library and a boutique supplying imported Sikh goods. After twenty years without a renovation, the society began a full overhaul of the gurdwara in 2019; the pandemic interrupted the work, but with membership fundraising and construction financing through Assiniboine Credit Union's Community Financial Centre, the renovations were completed throughout the building. Treasurer Amritpal Gundhu said a big reason for the work was to grow the services the society provides, and that the facilities are now better equipped to serve the local population.

Nagar Kirtan and seva beyond the temple walls

Every year the society holds its Nagar Kirtan, the Sikh procession with the Guru Granth Sahib at its head, near Manitoba's Legislative Building, and a recent procession drew more than 20,000 people. The same spirit of seva, selfless service, runs through the society's work in the wider city: its fundraising for the Children's Hospital Foundation of Manitoba has raised more than $51,000 toward a new emergency room, and alongside its religious teaching the society serves the community with food and other aid wherever it is needed. As Gundhu put it, where people need food, we help; where there is a need, we step in.

How do you visit the Sikh Society of Manitoba?

You visit at 1244 Mollard Road in Winnipeg's north end; the gurdwara is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day, and every weekend the temple provides free food to all those who ask. Everyone is welcome, Sikh or not, and no booking or payment is needed. Cover your head, remove your shoes, wash your hands, sit in the prayer hall, and stay for langar, the free vegetarian meal open to all.