ਵੈਨਕੂਵਰ ਅਤੇ ਸਰੀ ਦੇ ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰੇਵੈਨਕੂਵਰ ਅਤੇ ਸਰੀ ਦੇ ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰੇ

Gurdwaras in Vancouver and Surrey are the Sikh temples of Metro Vancouver in British Columbia, home to 222,165 Sikhs in the 2021 census, 8.5 percent of the region and one of the largest Sikh communities outside India. This city guide covers the temples with full entries on Jugti, from the pioneer halls of Vancouver to the great suburban gurdwaras of Surrey, with the neighbouring temples of Richmond, Burnaby, New Westminster and Abbotsford that Lower Mainland families use as one circuit. It is a city guide within our national guide to ਕੈਨੇਡਾ ਦੇ ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰੇ.

What are the gurdwaras of Vancouver and Surrey?

A gurdwara is the Sikh place of worship, literally the doorway to the Guru. Its prayer hall centres on the Guru Granth Sahib Ji, the Sikh scripture honoured as the eternal Guru, and every gurdwara serves langar, a free vegetarian meal open to all. In the Lower Mainland the gurdwara is also a Punjabi school, a seniors' centre, a sports and wedding hall and, at Vaisakhi, the starting point of two of the largest parades on earth. Vancouver holds the historic temples of the pioneer community, while Surrey, a generation younger, holds the numbers: 154,415 Sikhs in 2021, 27.45 percent of the city, against 16,535 in the city of Vancouver itself.

How did Sikhs first come to the Lower Mainland?

Sikh soldiers arrived in Vancouver aboard the Empress of Japan on 3 June 1902, travelling to the coronation of King Edward VII, and word of British Columbia's mills and farms spread back to Punjab. Between 1904 and 1908 about 5,000 South Asian migrants, almost all Sikh men, arrived to work in farming and the lumber mills. In 1906 they founded the Khalsa Diwan Society, the first Sikh Canadian organisation, and on 19 January 1908 the society opened Vancouver's first gurdwara, on 2nd Avenue, which served as the community's religious, social and political centre for decades. Discrimination hardened at the same time, and in 1914 the community famously provisioned the passengers of the Komagata Maru, held in Vancouver harbour for two months before being forced back to India.

The pioneer temples were few and hard won. Until the 1960s there were just three gurdwaras in Metro Vancouver: the Khalsa Diwan Society temples in Vancouver and Queensborough, New Westminster, and the Akali Singh gurdwara in Vancouver. The 2nd Avenue temple was sold and demolished in 1970, when the Khalsa Diwan Society moved to its new Ross Street building in South Vancouver. Surrey's temples came with the postwar and later immigration waves, as the community's centre of gravity moved east and south into the suburbs, and by the 1980s new gurdwaras were opening across Metro Vancouver.

Vancouver: the pioneer temples

The senior temple of the city is the Khalsa Diwan Society's Ross Street Gurdwara at 8000 Ross Street, a stepped white building designed by Arthur Erickson, completed in 1970, which also houses the Guru Nanak Jahaz (Komagata Maru) Museum. Across the city at 1890 Skeena Street stands Akali Singh Gurdwara, founded in 1952 when a breakaway group left the Khalsa Diwan Society, and now one of East Vancouver's landmarks. Just outside the city, the circuit continues to Gurdwara Sahib Sukh Sagar in Queensborough, New Westminster, begun in 1919, to the Nanaksar temple on farmland in Richmond, founded in 1979, and to the Ravidassia temple in Burnaby, opened in 1982. An hour east, the Gur Sikh Temple at Abbotsford, opened on 26 February 1911, is the oldest existing gurdwara in North America and a National Historic Site of Canada, and no tour of the region's temples is complete without it.

Surrey: the suburban heart

Surrey is where the Lower Mainland's Sikh life is largest today. Its senior temple, Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara on Scott Road at the Delta border, was founded in 1973 and opened in its present white, domed building in 1981, serving one of the largest congregations in North America. In Newton, Dasmesh Darbar Gurdwara, formed in 1998 at 12885 85 Avenue, is one of the largest gurdwaras in British Columbia and the organiser of the Surrey Vaisakhi Parade. Around them, Surrey and its neighbours hold a dense ring of temples, Punjabi schools and community halls, built by a community that is more than a quarter of the city's population and still growing with each new subdivision.

All Gurdwaras in Vancouver and Surrey

Khalsa Diwan Society (Ross Street Gurdwara), Vancouver, British Columbia - the oldest Sikh society in Greater Vancouver, founded 1906, in its Arthur Erickson building of 1970 with the Komagata Maru Museum

Akali Singh Gurdwara, Vancouver, British Columbia - established in April 1952 after the split from the Khalsa Diwan Society, now at 1890 Skeena Street in East Vancouver

Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara, Surrey, British Columbia - founded 1973 on Scott Road, opened in its present building in 1981, one of the largest gurdwaras in North America

Dasmesh Darbar Gurdwara, Surrey, British Columbia - formed in 1998 in Newton, organiser of the Surrey Vaisakhi Parade, the largest Vaisakhi procession in the world

Nanaksar Gurdwara Gursikh Temple, Richmond, British Columbia - founded in 1979 by Sant Baba Mihan Singh Ji on Westminster Highway, a Nanaksar temple of seva and simran

Shri Guru Ravidass Sabha Temple, Burnaby, British Columbia - the Ravidassia gurdwara opened in 1982 at 7271 Gilley Avenue, serving the Lower Mainland Ravidassia community

Gurdwara Sahib Sukh Sagar, New Westminster, British Columbia - Khalsa Diwan Society gurdwara begun in 1919 in Queensborough, now at 347 Wood Street

Gur Sikh Temple, Abbotsford, British Columbia - the oldest existing gurdwara in North America, opened 1911, and a National Historic Site of Canada

Vaisakhi in Vancouver and Surrey

Vaisakhi, marking the founding of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh Ji in 1699, brings the two cities' temples onto the streets a week apart each April. The Vancouver Vaisakhi Parade, organised by the Khalsa Diwan Society, starts at the Ross Street temple and loops through South Vancouver past Punjabi Market at Main Street and 49th Avenue. The Surrey Khalsa Day Parade starts at Dasmesh Darbar, runs through Newton with about 20 floats, and attracts over 300,000 people in a typical year, arguably the largest Vaisakhi parade in the world outside India. Both parades draw over 200,000 people, and along both routes families and businesses give out free food and drink to everyone, langar taken to the streets. Take public transit: parking near either route is close to impossible on the day.

How do you visit a gurdwara in Vancouver or Surrey?

You are welcome at any of them, Sikh or not, and there is no charge. Cover your head, scarves are usually available at the door, remove your shoes, wash your hands, and sit on the floor of the prayer hall for as much of the diwan as you wish; chairs are available in most halls for those who need them. Stay for langar afterwards, and accept it as it is offered: eating together, on the same level, is the point. For a first visit, Ross Street pairs worship with the Komagata Maru Museum, Abbotsford pairs it with a national historic site and a heritage museum, and Surrey's Guru Nanak and Dasmesh Darbar show the modern suburban gurdwara at full scale. At Vaisakhi, join the parade crowds instead, and let the city feed you.