Gurdwara Sahib Stockton,California

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.

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

History

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. 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.

Jawala went on to form the Ghadar Party, a revolutionary movement that called for diaspora Indians to end the British occupation of India. 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.

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.

This is a very historic site in the state of California and the United States. The first Sikhs who came to America in the early 1900s pitched in and constructed this Sikh Temple (Gurudwara) in 1915. In 1929 the Sikh community raised more funds and constructed a new Gurudwara in the Byzantine style on the property. Both buildings have been lovingly preserved.

Such kind people! This is the first Sikh temple built in California. Lots of history and they offer dinner and preying every night.