The new Siri Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara is due to open next year
The Sikh community in Gravesend has been raising £11m for a new temple which is due to be completed next year. Reporter CHARLOTTE McDONALD looks at how the work is going.
SCAFFOLDING currently covers the grey, white and pink stone building.
But in just over a year the Sikh gurdwara in Khalsa Avenue, Gravesend, will be complete.
The style of the building is very much in keeping with traditional Sikh architecture.
Gurdwara committee member Jagdev Singh Virdee said: "The architect is from Gravesend and knows the local needs.
"At first he proposed a contemporary building but the community said it wanted a traditional one.
advertisement
"He then went to India to look at the gurdwaras there, including the holiest places of worship
for Sikhs such as Harmandir Sahib, the Golden Temple, for inspiration."
The main structure has been built with reinforced concrete which is being covered with
finely carved stone.
A look inside the temple, which has four floors
Marble and granite weighing around 1,400 tonnes has been ordered from India and transported to Gravesend.
It is now being pieced together like a jigsaw by workers from India on the eight-acre site, which is just outside the centre of the town.
The site as a whole includes space for two football pitches and parking for about 200 cars.
It also includes an education centre where the Punjabi school is run at weekends, and a sports hall.
The four-floor temple will be replacing the one in Clarence Place, Gravesend, which has been open since 1968.
As the Sikh community has grown, there is now not enough room for everyone at Clarence Place, so the new gurdwara is much anticipated.
Mr Virdee said: "The community have been raising the money as the work has been going along.
"The building was started about five years ago."
He added: "Each year we have managed to raise enough to carry on with the development.
"The remaining three or four million pounds will partly be raised by selling the old building and other property owned by the gurdwara."
A Sikh temple, or gurdwara, has a hall which forms the focus of religious observance.
This room, called the Diwan Hall, holds the sacred scriptures on display.
In the new gurdwara there will be a large central Diwan Hall and two smaller ones.
Another feature is the space for Langar - a community kitchen - where food is shared with
anyone in the community who wants to take part in a communal meal.
At the new temple, the first place you come to on entering the front door will be the communal space for these meals, with large kitchens to the side.
Gravesham councillor Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi showed me round both gurdwaras.
He said: "People come as equals and sit together to eat.
"There is no hierarchy."
The gurdwara will have a library resource centre and computer rooms, along with a lecture room and an exhibition space which anyone will be able to hire.
It will be called the Siri Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara - the same as the current one in Clarence Place.
The older building will be sold once the new gurdwara is in use.
For more information about the temple, visit the website gurunanakdarbar.org
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
Print
Email this
