The first Sikhs had arrived in the Fraser Valley in 1905, from Punjab in India and settled in the valley by working on the farms and in the forest industry. Soon after, in 1908, local Sikhs began to construct a Sikh Temple in a true community effort, under the auspices of the Khalsa Diwan Society.

These men and others who worked on the farms in the area used to carry local timber donated by the Tretheway family’s Abbotsford Lumber Company on their backs up the hill from Mill Lake to the Temple site. It would take four years of hard work and great commitment – both financial and physical – to finish building it. The temple was completed in 1911 and officially opened in the new year.

As the oldest, still-standing Sikh Temple in the Western Hemisphere, the Abbotsford Gur Sikh Temple has become imbued with symbolism. For the Sikh community, the building is a gift given to them by the pioneers. It signifies their sacrifices, their perseverance against many odds and their resilience to carve out a place for themselves and their families.

The Temple is an important touchstone to our community’s past. Its preservation also represents one of the first steps in documenting teh history of the Sikhs in Canada. In 2002, the Khalsa Diwan Society proposed to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada to consider the Temple for National Historic Site designation. In July 2002, the Society received notice of the designation which was carried out by Prime Minister Jean Chretien. To mark the Centennial (1911 – 2011) of the Gur Sikh Temple, Prime Minister Stephen Harper inaugurated the Sikh Heritage Museum in the ground floor of the Temple.