Gur Sikh Temple

About

The Gur Sikh Temple stands on a hill in Abbotsford, British Columbia, a quiet witness to the long Sikh presence in Canada. Although outwardly it resembles the wooden frontier houses of early twentieth-century British Columbia, within it carries the unmistakable forms of Sikh devotion: the prayer hall on the upper floor, and below it the langar and community dining room that has fed worshippers and visitors alike since its opening.

First-generation Sikh settlers, who had arrived from Punjab to work the local farms and lumber mills, hand-carried timber from a nearby mill up the hillside to raise the gurdwara. When it opened on 26 February 1911, the ceremony drew Sikhs and non-Sikhs from across the province, marking the public arrival of the Sikh community as a settled part of Canadian life.

The building has been carefully preserved and modestly extended, with new wings added in 1932 and again in the 1960s. In 2002 it was designated a National Historic Site of Canada, and after restoration it reopened in 2007. On the ground floor a Sikh Heritage Museum, inaugurated for the centennial in 2011, tells the story of the early Sikh community in British Columbia.

History

The first Sikh pioneers arrived in the Abbotsford area in 1905, finding work in farming and the timber trade. Plans for a gurdwara took shape in 1908, and after a hilltop property was acquired, the community itself carried the lumber up the slope. The gurdwara opened on 26 February 1911, the third gurdwara built in Canada but the oldest still standing.

The temple belonged to the Khalsa Diwan Society of Vancouver until 1975, when it was transferred to a newly autonomous Khalsa Diwan Society of Abbotsford. A larger replacement gurdwara was raised across the road in 1983, while the original building remained as a cherished historic place of worship. Prime Minister Jean Chretien declared it a National Historic Site in 2002, and the Sikh Heritage Museum was opened on the ground floor by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2011.

Significance

For Sikhs in Canada and across the diaspora, the Gur Sikh Temple is a tangible link to the courage and faith of the early settlers who built a place of worship with their own hands. Its recognition as a National Historic Site is the only such designation given to a gurdwara anywhere outside the Punjab homeland, honouring a century of Sikh presence in North America.