Gurdwara Sahib of Stockton

Gurdwara Sahib Stockton
Religion
Affiliation	Sikhism
Location
Location	1930 S Sikh Temple St, Stockton, CA 95206
Geographic coordinates	37°56′03″N121°16′29″W / 37.93406°N 121.27475°W / 37.93406; -121.27475
Architecture
Date established	October 24, 1912
Website
http://stocktongurdwara.org/

First Sikh temple in the United States, built in Stockton in 1912 (photo taken in 1997)

Gurdwara Sahib Stockton is a gurdwara located in the city of Stockton, California. It is notable for being the first Sikh house of worship in the United States. ^[1]

The Pacific Coast Khalsa Diwan Society founded the gurdwara in 1912.

History

Interior in 1916

Jawala Singh, a successful potato farmer in the San Joaquin Valley, leased a 500-acre ranch with business partner Wasakha Singh in Holtville, next to Stockton. Immigrating Punjabi Sikh farmers would perform prayers in a room on the farm with the Guru Granth Sahib. ^[1] Jawala and Wasakha would eventually found the gurdwara on South Grant Street in a house, but their ranch would become an important religious, social, and political center associated with the gurdwara. ^{[2] [3]}

Jawala went on to form the Ghadar Party, a revolutionary movement that called for diaspora Indians to end the British occupation of India. ^[3] The Stockton Gurdwara would serve as an important benefactor of the Ghadar Party, sponsoring the first Punjabi language newspaper in the United States, The Ghadar , among other support. ^[4]

A 2015 address at the gurdwara

Notable people

Dalip Singh Saund, Democrat CA-29, the first Sikh American, the first Asian American, the first Indian American and the first member of a non-Abrahamic faith to be elected to Congress. His studies at University of California, Berkeley, were sponsored by the Stockton Gurdwara. ^[5]

See also

• Sikhism in the United States

References

1. "Stockton Gurdwara – Pioneering Punjabis Digital Archive". pioneeringpunjabis.ucdavis.edu. Retrieved June 26, 2018.
2. Van Hear, Nicholas (2005), "Refugee Diasporas or Refugees in Diaspora", Encyclopedia of Diasporas, Springer US, pp. 580–589, doi:10.1007/978-0-387-29904-4_60, ISBN   9780306483219
3. Singh, Pashaura; Fenech, Louis E., eds. (March 1, 2014). The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199699308.001.0001. ISBN   9780199699308.
4. "History" . Retrieved June 26, 2018.
5. CA State Legislature. "Relative to the 100-year anniversary of the Sikh American".