Definition from Wikipedia;
A Gurdwara (Punjabi: ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰਾ, gurduārā or , gurdwārā), meaning the Gateway to the Guru, is a place of worship for Sikhs[1], the followers of Sikhism. A Gurdwara is also referred to as a Sikh temple. The most well-known Gurdwara of the Sikhs is the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, Punjab, India.
A Gurdwara is the place where Sikhs come together for congregational worship.
The literal meaning of the Punjabi word Gurdwara is 'the residence of the Guru', or 'the door that leads to the Guru'.
In a modern Gurdwara, the Guru is not a person but the book of Sikh scriptures called the Guru Granth Sahib.
It is the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib that gives the Gurdwara its religious status, so any building containing the book is a Gurdwara.
The rules of a Gurdwara
1. Take off your shoes. One is advised to take off their socks too, so that the foul smell of the socks does not enter the Gurudwara premises. This is to show respect. Place your shoes in the shoe room. It also stops dust getting into the Gurdwara.
2. Cover your head. This is also to show respect.
3. No alcohol, drugs, cigarettes or weapons. This is to stop unclean substances and things getting into the Gurdwara.
4. Wash your hands and feet. This is to stop dirty feet and hands spreading dirt and dust spreading around the Gurdwara.
5. Don't point your feet at the Guru Granth Sahib. This would be disrespectful.
6. Anyone of any faith can visit a Gurdwara and will be welcomed in the Gurdwara. So people feel free in the Gurdwara, and won't be scared away.
7. Bow to the Guru Granth Sahib as the first thing touching the floor with your forehead. This not only shows respect but also indicates that you submit yourself to the truths contained in the book.
8. People also place an offering of food or money in front of the Guru Granth Sahib. This is used to run the Gurdwara and the free food kitchen (Langar). The offering is not charity but a sharing of God's gifts. If a person has no money or food to offer they may offer flowers, or just some words of sincere thanks.
9. Everyone sits on the floor in a Gurdwara. This is to be humble before the Guru Granth Sahib and because it gives everyone a place of equal status to sit. Most people sit cross-legged.
10. Anyone who walks round the Guru Granth Sahib or the Gurdwara must do so in a clockwise direction.
11. During a service a person with a whisk or fan called a Chaur waves it over the Guru Granth Sahib as a sign of respect.
12. Men and women generally sit on separate sides of the hall. To avoid distraction and keep the main focus on God.
13. Stand up and press your both hands together at the time of Ardas.
14. Towards the end of a service karah prasad, a sweet vegetarian food that has been blessed, will be served. This should be taken and received in cupped hands as a gift of God.
15. Every Gurdwara has a Langar-Khana (dining place) attached to it where food is served to everyone without charge. The food served in the Langar must be simple, so as to prevent wealthy congregations turning it into a feast that shows off their superiority. We all are supposed sit together and have the meal served. This is to remove castism or groupism of high and low.
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Secondary Research - Photographs from Wikipedia
Gurudwara Shri Guru Singh Sabha, Bangkok
Sikh temple located in El Sobrante, California
Guru Nanak Gurdwara
Singh Sabha Southall
Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Smethwick
Sri Guru Singh Sabha Southall
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The website above uses Google Maps to show Sikh Temples across the UK
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Sikhism in the United Kingdom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Sikhism was recorded as the religion of 336,179 people in the United Kingdom at the 2001 Census.[1] (Other sources regard the Sikh population as being between 600,000[2] and 750,000.)[3] While England is home to the majority of Sikhs in the UK, small communities also exist in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales
Sikhism in England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The arrival of Sikhism in England is relatively recent but today there are just over 336,000 adherents and 300 gurudwaras in England with the largest communities in London, Coventry, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Bradford, Leeds and Huddersfield.[1] Leicester is also important having the largest Sikh community in the East Midlands and the eighth largest Sikh community in England.[2] Leicester is also the home of the Guru Nanak Sikh Museum, the first Museum in England, the UK and probably Europe.[3]
There are approximately 20 million Sikhs world-wide of whom just over 420,000 adherents and 300 gurudwaras in England. The largest communities are in London, Bradford, Leeds, Huddersfield, Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/sikhism/history/britishsikhism.shtml
History of Sikhism in Britain
Most of Britain's Sikhs have their origins in immigration either from the Punjab in Northwest India in the 1950s and 60s, or from East Africa slightly later.
The first settler
The first recorded Sikh settler in Britain was Maharajah Duleep Singh. Duleep Singh was the last ruler of the Sikh kingdom of Punjab.
The Maharajah was dethroned after six years' rule, and exiled to Britain in 1849 at the age of 14, after the Anglo-Sikh wars.
There is a statue to the Maharajah at Butten Island, Thetford, Norfolk, near the Elveden Estate where he lived in Britain. The statue was unveiled by the Prince of Wales in 1999.
Despite the early arrival of the Maharajah, the first Sikh Gurdwara (temple) was not established until 1911, at Putney in London.
The main immigration of the Sikhs
The first Sikh migration came in the 1950s. It was mostly of men from the Punjab seeking work in British industry, which had a shortage of unskilled labour. Most of the new arrivals worked in industries like foundries and textiles.
These new arrivals mostly settled in London, Birmingham and West Yorkshire.
The first batch of Sikh migrants usually removed the outward religious symbols (turban, hair and beard) as racist prejudice in Britain would have kept them out of work.
Why did they leave the Punjab?
People wanted to leave the Punjab not just because there was a shortage of industrial and agricultural jobs, but also because of the chaotic aftermath of the 1947 division of "British" India into the secular but largely Hindu state of India and the Muslim state of Pakistan.
The frontier between India and Pakistan ran through the Sikh homeland of the Punjab. There was bloodshed and destruction as millions of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs tried to cross the border to the safety of their own communities.
The Punjab changed from a settled and prosperous area to a violent and overcrowded frontier zone. Many Sikhs left the area that was to become Pakistan to move to the Indian section of the Punjab, while others left India altogether.
The Punjab was disrupted again in 1966, when India further subdivided it into 3 parts, with the creation of the states of Punjab, Haryana, and Himachal Pradesh.
Immigration from East Africa
The migration from East Africa was the result of the move to Africanise countries like Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya, depriving many Asians of their work, and in many cases expelling them altogether.
The Sikhs from East Africa took a robust attitude to the outward symbols of Sikhism and continued to wear them.
Since they had been living as an expatriate community in Africa for over 70 years they were accustomed to being a highly visible minority.They also had the further advantage of usually being highly skilled and employable, in contrast to the humble labourers from the Punjab.
The presence of a group of Sikhs who radiated pride in being members of the Khalsa encouraged others to return to the five Ks. This strengthened the identity and the visibility of the British Sikhs as a whole.
Numbers today
The 2001 census recorded 336,000 Sikhs living in Britain.************
Gurdwaras
Southall, in London, is home to the largest Sikh temple outside India, known as Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha.[4] It opened in 2003 after almost 3 years construction and a cost of £17 Million.[5]Gravesend gurdwara, which has been under construction for the past seven years, and is due to open in time for the Vaisakhi festival in 2009.[6] In Sunderland, a former Church of England church has been transformed into a Sikh Gurdwara by the Sunderland Sikh Association.[7] Another large temple nearing completion is an £11m project to build the
Largest Sikh Temple in the UK;
Secondary Research : Photographs
Construction of the Guru Nank Gurdwara, Gravesend;
£11m Sikh temple nears completion
 The roof of the temple in Gravesend now boasts five elaborate domes |
An £11m project to build a Sikh temple in north Kent will be finished on time, despite the global economic downturn, community leaders have said.
The Gravesend gurdwara has been under construction for the past seven years, and is due to open in time for the Sikh New Year Vaisakhi festival in 2009.
It has been paid for entirely by the Sikh community in north Kent, and partly built by volunteers.
The building is set to be one of the largest Sikh temples in the UK.
Architect Teja Singh Biring said: "Nobody has let the side down. The community have been funding it and the banks have been very positive as well."
And site manager, Balwant Singh Hayre, said: "Everybody is working hard because we committed the community definitely to open on Vaisakhi."
 The gurdwara is set to be one of the largest Sikh temples in the UK |
He said the community was "looking forward" each day to the progress and completion of the project in time for the festival which is celebrated on 13 or 14 April.
Stonemasons from India have been working for two years on the temple in Khalsa Avenue, which has been clad inside and out with granite and marble.
The roof now boasts five elaborate domes, and an intricate heating and ventilation system has been installed inside.
The building will be able to house 1,200 worshippers, and will have educational facilities, a lecture theatre, computer room and library. It will also have meeting halls, two kitchens and car parking.
Gravesend's Sikh community began settling in the town at the turn of the 20th Century. Before the community bought their current gurdwara in 1968, they used to gather in each other's homes.
Some £11m has been spent on the Gurdwara
^^ Taken from the "Punjab Road Atlas" Showing two of the major Gurdwara's in India.
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Taken from "Leicester Celebrates Vaisakhi 1987" Showing the first 4 Gurdwara's to open in Leicester.
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Secondary Research, Photo's of The Golden temple, Amritsar, India
The Harmandir Sahib[1] (Punjabi: ਹਰਿਮੰਦਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ) or Darbar Sahib[3] (Punjabi: ਦਰਬਾਰ ਸਾਹਿਬ ), informally referred to as The Golden Temple,[1] is the holiest shrine in Sikhism. It is located in the city of Amritsar, which was established by Guru Ram Das, the fourth guru of the Sikhs, and is known as "Guru di Nagri" which means 'City of the Sikh Guru'.
Operation Blue Star
Main article: Operation Blue Star
Between 3 June and 6 June 1984, the Indian Army led by General Kuldip Singh Brar brought troops into the Harmandir Sahib to arrest Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. He and some followers had taken refuge in the Harmandir Sahib, and resisted the police who sought to arrest him for suspected acts of terrorism.
By 1983, the Harmandir Sahib became a shelter for a large number of militants. Mark Tully and Satish Jacob wrote[10]: "All ... [Bhindranwale's] terrorists were known by name to the shopkeepers and the householders who live in the narrow alleys surrounding the Golden Temple....The Punjab police must have known who they were also, but they made no attempt to arrest them. By this time Bhindranwale and his men were above the law."
The Harmandir Sahib complex and some of the surrounding houses were fortified. The Statesman reported on 4 July that light machine-guns and sophisticated self-loading rifles were known to have been brought into the compound.
Indira Gandhi ordered the army to launch Operation Blue Star.
Fierce fighting ensued between Bhindranwale's supporters and the soldiers, in which many of Bhindranwale's supporters were killed along with many soldiers. An official account tallies the deaths of 83 soldiers and 492 civilians[11]. However, many journalists abroad and in India consider the pilgrim death toll to be much higher, as many as 2,000[citation needed]. The Harmandir Sahib complex also suffered much damage due to the fighting, especially the holy Sri Akal Takhat Sahib.
Many Sikhs regarded the attack as a desecration of their holiest shrine and their alienation had deep and dramatic consequences.
Sonia Gandhi in 1998 officially apologized for the assault on the holy Harmandir Sahib as a great mistake.[12]
In 1986, the repairs performed on the holy Sri Akal Takhat Sahib, which the Rajiv Gandhi Government had undertaken without consultation, were removed. A new Sri Akal Takhat Sahib was completed in 1999 by Kar Seva (free pilgrim service and work).
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"The Sikhs" by Gurbachan Singh - A book detailing the history and origins of Sikhism as well as writing about the main Sikh Temples in India and Pakistan
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"The white and gilded domes shimmer in the haze of a summer's morning. But this is not the teeming province of Punjab or the foothills of the Himalayas - it is the very English setting of Leamington Spa, home of baths, pump rooms and Regency piles.
When the town's first purpose-built gurdwara - catering for a small, local congregation of around 4,000 Sikhs, and also attracting adherents from nearby Kenilworth and Warwick - is completed next month it will provide religious, charitable, social and educational services, as well as being a legacy for future generations.
Its founders always wanted the gurdwara to be a focal point for the Sikh community. What they never wanted was for it to stir up the small but unmistakable whiff of prejudice. Unfortunately, since construction started 18 months ago, there has been a ripple of covert hostility running through Leamington Spa."
Every Sikh couple is wed in a Gurdwara - here is a video of a Sikh wedding taking place;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0uP5mZ8l8c&feature=fvst
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Secondary Photographs http://www.sikhsocietymk.co.uk/
Gurdwara Baba Zorawar Singh Ji Baba Fateh Singh Ji - Milton Keynes
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Guru Nanak Sikh Museum, Leicester
The museum was opened in 1992 houses paintings on Sikh history ranging from portraits of the Sikh Gurus, the Sikh scholars, paintings relating to Sikh rule in the Panjab in the 19th Century and the persecution of the Sikhs.
Every Sikh couple is wed in a Gurdwara - here is a video of a Sikh wedding taking place;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0uP5mZ8l8c&feature=fvst
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