Sikhism

Gurdwara

A gurdwara as most American Sikhs know it: an independent, mostly Punjabi congregation, the sangat, run by an elected committee and keeping the Guru Granth Sahib, the scripture Sikhs hold to be their living Guru, as the Sikh Rehat Maryada, the code published by the SGPC in Amritsar, lays down. There are some 240 to 250 in the United States, the first built at Stockton in 1912; many began in a converted church, house or warehouse. At dawn the Guru Granth Sahib is carried from its own room, the sachkhand, to the palki and opened; after the Rehras at sunset and the Kirtan Sohila at night it is carried back to rest, and through the day the doors stand open for anyone who comes to bow. The main gathering, moved to Sunday in America, is the diwan, from about nine until two with people coming and going: kirtan sung by hired ragis to harmonium and tabla (never bells or lamps), katha, the Ardas, the hukamnama, and karah prashad, then langar, free vegetarian food for anyone, eaten sitting in rows on the floor, sponsored by a family and cooked by volunteers. Everyone covers their head and takes off their shoes and sits on the floor below the Guru, men and women usually on their own sides; no meat, eggs, alcohol or tobacco come onto the premises. There is no priesthood: any Sikh may read or lead the Ardas, women as well as men, though most granthis are men, often brought from Punjab on religious-worker visas. The committee hires and dismisses the granthi, and its elections, fought between slates, sometimes end in court or in a new gurdwara. Money comes from the golak, the box before the Guru, from sponsored langars and Akhand Paths, and from dasvandh, the tenth Sikhs are taught to give. Many committees kept the 2003 Nanakshahi calendar; others follow the SGPC's lunar dates (a variant). Practice varies: small gurdwaras may open only at weekends and serve langar only on Sundays, and some seat everyone together; here, as at many, a smaller langar is served at midday every day; where the research was thin, the common practice was chosen.

8 required or forbidden in the building · services, rites, joining, giving, leaders and staff, life together, every item, and every factor →