Ontario Khalsa Darbar (Dixie Gurdwara), Mississaugaਉਨਟਾਰੀਓ ਖਾਲਸਾ ਦਰਬਾਰ (ਡਿਕਸੀ ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ), ਮਿਸੀਸਾਗਾ

Ontario Khalsa Darbar, popularly called Dixie Gurdwara, is the Sikh temple at 7080 Dixie Road in Mississauga, Ontario, described as the largest and busiest gurdwara in Canada. Started in 1978 on farmland bought in 1973, it opened its first purpose built hall on 25 June 1989 and drew nearly 120,000 people to its 2001 Vaisakhi Nagar Kirtan. It is one of the entries in our guide to Gurdwaras in Canada.

What is Ontario Khalsa Darbar?

Ontario Khalsa Darbar is a gurdwara, a Sikh place of worship: the word means the doorway of the Guru, and the building centres on the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scripture honoured as the eternal Guru, with a langar hall serving a free vegetarian meal to everyone. It stands at the corner of Dixie Road and Derry Road in Mississauga, on land beside Etobicoke Creek, and it is the central gurdwara of the Greater Toronto Area. Its founders are recorded as Pritam Singh Chohan, Mohinder Singh, Jai Singh, Ranjit Singh Mahal and Avtar Singh Bhogal.

History: from a farmhouse in 1978 to the 1989 opening

In 1973 Ontario's Sikh community bought a 1.9 acre plot of farmland in Mississauga with the intention of building a gurdwara there. Ontario Khalsa Darbar was officially started in 1978 in the farmhouse that stood on the property, and by 1982 it had moved into a mobile building on the site. Fundraising and land purchases continued steadily. The foundation of a proper gurdwara structure was started on 10 April 1982, a building was created in 1988, and the 25,000 square foot gurdwara was officially inaugurated on 25 June 1989.

The site then grew in stages as the Greater Toronto Area's Sikh population grew. In 1993 an additional 25 acres was bought for expansion, followed by an 11.5 acre purchase in 1995, and by 13 July 1997 the site had expanded to 110,000 square feet. In 1998 a 135 foot tall Nishan Sahib, the Sikh flagpole that marks every gurdwara, was installed. A new kitchen and the East Hall Extension were built in 2019, Kiratpur Park was opened in 2022, and halls were refurbished with an elevator installed in 2023 and 2024, with a West Hall Extension among the projects that followed.

Architecture: a growing complex on Dixie Road

The architect of the complex is Hardial Dhir, and its style is recorded as Sikh architecture: white walls, domed towers at either end, a curved entrance block carrying the Khanda symbol, and large glazed halls built to hold festival crowds. Scale is the point of the place. What began as a farmhouse and a trailer on 1.9 acres is now a multi building complex on a site assembled from the purchases of 1973, 1993 and 1995, with an outdoor stadium added in the 1990s and parking and halls still being extended, because the building still fills beyond capacity on its biggest days.

Festivals: Vaisakhi, Bandi Chhor Divas and the Nagar Kirtan

The gurdwara's year peaks at Vaisakhi in April, at Bandi Chhor Divas, held on the same day as Diwali in the Nanakshahi calendar, and on New Year's Eve, 31 December, and on those days it is still overcrowded despite its size. In 2001 the Nagar Kirtan, the procession that celebrates Vaisakhi, drew a crowd of nearly 120,000 people, one of the largest Sikh gatherings in Canadian history. In 2003 the Bandi Chhor Divas celebration drew more than 40,000 devotees. Visitors during a festival often say the complex has the atmosphere of a major gurdwara in India, transplanted to a Mississauga arterial road.

Kiratpur Park and community service

Behind the gurdwara, on Etobicoke Creek, sits Kiratpur Park, created by the management committee from 2020 and completed in July 2022, where families scatter the ashes of their departed relatives, a service few diaspora gurdwaras can offer on their own land. The gurdwara also runs two blood donation camps a year with Canadian Blood Services, the first in June in memory of the victims of Operation Blue Star in 1984, and the second in November in honour of Guru Nanak Dev Ji's Gurpurab. Its management committee of eleven members is elected every three years, and any member of the general body may vote or stand.

How do you visit Dixie Gurdwara?

You visit at 7080 Dixie Road, Mississauga, ON L5S 1B7, at Derry Road in the city's north east, and the gurdwara's site is dixiegurdwara.com. Everyone is welcome, Sikh or not, and no booking or payment is needed. Cover your head, remove your shoes, sit in the prayer hall for as long as you wish, and stay for langar. Come early on Vaisakhi, Bandi Chhor Divas or 31 December, when tens of thousands arrive, and allow time to walk to Kiratpur Park behind the complex, where Etobicoke Creek runs below the halls.