ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਦਰਬਾਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਕਰਤਾਰਪੁਰਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ ਦਰਬਾਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਕਰਤਾਰਪੁਰ

Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, known as Kartarpur Sahib, is the Sikh shrine marking the place where Guru Nanak Dev Ji settled, farmed, and gathered the first Sikh community after his missionary travels. He lived here for the final 18 years of his life until 1539. Located beside the Ravi in Pakistan's Narowal district, it stands among the holiest sites in Sikhism.

Guru Nanak Dev Ji's final years

After decades of travelling across South Asia, Arabia, and Tibet, ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ ਦੇਵ ਜੀ chose Kartarpur, then a quiet settlement on the right bank of the Ravi, as his home, founding the town in 1504. He ploughed the fields himself, set up a langar where all ate together regardless of caste or creed, and assembled the first Sikh commune. It was here that he gave the three principles that define the Sikh way of life: Kirat Karo (earn an honest living), Naam Japo (remember the Divine Name), and Vand Chako (share what you have). He preached the oneness of God, Ik Onkar, and the equality of all people across caste, religion, and gender: teachings of peace, harmony, and universal brotherhood.

The flower legend

When Guru Nanak Dev Ji's soul departed on 22 September 1539, a dispute arose over his mortal remains. His Muslim followers, who saw him as a pir, wished to bury him; his Hindu followers, who revered him as a guru, wished to cremate him. Legend says that when the sheet covering his body was lifted, only flowers remained, and the flowers were divided between the two communities. In another telling, the two sides divided the Guru's chadar (shawl): the Muslims buried their portion and the Hindus cremated theirs. The Ravi's periodic flooding later washed away the cremation site, and Guru Nanak's son Baba Sri Chand moved the ashes to a safer spot, the town across the border now known as ਡੇਰਾ ਬਾਬਾ ਨਾਨਕ.

The shrine building

For centuries after the Guru, Kartarpur remained in the care of the Udasi sect founded by his son Sri Chand. The Sikh Gurdwaras Act of 1925 returned Sikh shrines to Sikh management, and around the same time the Ravi's floods had badly damaged the old structure. The white-domed shrine that stands today was built in 1925 with Rs. 1,35,600 donated by Sardar Bhupindar Singh, the Maharaja of Patiala. Pakistan repaired it in 1995 and fully restored it in 2004. In November 2018 the complex was greatly expanded, a new courtyard, museum, library, dormitories, and locker rooms spread across 42 acres, and it is now claimed to be the largest gurdwara in the world. Within the complex stands a 20-foot well of small red bricks, some 500 years old, believed to date to Guru Nanak Dev Ji's own time. In May 2017 the US-based NGO EcoSikh proposed a 100-acre sacred forest around the shrine.

The long road to the Kartarpur Corridor

Partition in 1947 left Kartarpur just 3 kilometres inside Pakistan, its white domes visible from the Indian side of the border. For seventy years Indian pilgrims could only gaze at the shrine from the bluffs near ਡੇਰਾ ਬਾਬਾ ਨਾਨਕ, gathering in large numbers on Gurpurab to perform darshan from afar. The demand for a visa-free corridor was old and persistent: India's Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee first raised it during his bus journey to Lahore in 1999, and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf approved the idea in 2000, with Pakistan agreeing to a visa-free bridge from the border to the shrine. The proposal stalled for nearly two decades, in 2017 India even considered installing viewing binoculars at Dera Baba Nanak instead. Momentum returned in August 2018, when Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said Pakistan's new Prime Minister Imran Khan had assured him the corridor would open before Guru Nanak's 550th birth anniversary. Pakistan decided in September 2018 to open the corridor for visa-free entry of 5,000 Indian pilgrims a day, and India approved the stretch from Dera Baba Nanak to the international border that November. The Kartarpur Corridor was thrown open on 9 November 2019: Imran Khan inaugurated the Pakistani side while, on the Indian side, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the first jatha of more than 550 pilgrims, led by Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh and including former prime minister Manmohan Singh. Hailed as a 'Corridor of Peace' and welcomed by the United Nations, it gave Indian pilgrims rare visa-free access to the shrine, returning the same day.

What can pilgrims see at Kartarpur Sahib?

Beyond the main darbar hall, the complex holds Baba Nanak's 500-year-old well, a sarovar, a vast langar hall, a museum, and a library, and the agricultural fields around it where the Guru once worked the land. The shrines in Pakistan are cared for by the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (PSGPC) under the federal Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), whose website carries corridor and visitor information.

Why is Kartarpur Sahib so important to Sikhs?

It is where Guru Nanak Dev Ji lived his final years, farmed with his own hands, preached his core teachings, and where his mortal remains were laid to rest, the first settled Sikh community, and one of the holiest sites in Sikhism.

How does the Kartarpur Corridor work?

The corridor lets Indian pilgrims register online, cross to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur with their passport, and return to India the same day, no visa required. It connects Sri Darbar Sahib at Dera Baba Nanak in India's Punjab with the shrine in Pakistan.

Related: ਪਾਕਿਸਤਾਨ ਦੇ ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰੇ, the complete guide to Pakistan's historic Sikh shrines. ਨਨਕਾਣਾ ਸਾਹਿਬ, Guru Nanak Dev Ji's birthplace. ਡੇਰਾ ਬਾਬਾ ਨਾਨਕ, the Indian town facing Kartarpur across the Ravi.