Patrick Comerford
The Sikh temple in Kuching or Gurdwara Sahib Kuching, with its golden domes, is one of the most notable landmarks in the city. It is the religious and cultural centre of the Sikh community in Kuching, and is one of the symbols of the religious and ethnic pluralism and diversity of Sarawak.
The temple is on Jalan Masjid, close to the Kuching Mosque (Masjid Bandaraya Kuching), another landmark religious building in Kuching known for its Mughal-style golden onion domes and its gilded cupolas.
When the temple and the mosque are viewed from the steps of Saint Thomas’s Anglican Cathedral and the Padang Merdek, the main square in the heart of Kuching, they form a stunning panorama that embraces three traditions that are part of Sarawak’s identity: Christianity, Islam and Sikhism.
The Sikh Gurdwara is one of three Sikh temples in Sarawak – the others are in Sibu and Miri – and it dates back to the arrival of the first Sikhs who came to Kuching to work in the police force during the era of the Brooke administration.
When a Chinese uprising started in 1857 in the gold mining town of Bau, about 33 km from Kuching, Sir James Brooke, the first white Rajah of Sarawak, fled to Singapore and took refuge with the Governor of the Straits Settlements.
While he was in Singapore, Brooke recruited Sikh men for a new Sarawak police force, and the first 13 Sikhs, led by Dewa Singh Akhara, arrived in Kuching in the 1860s. Sikhs who came later were prison wardens, worked and as security personnel with the Sarawak Shell Company in Miri, or joined the Sarawak Rangers, formed in 1872.
By 1880, there were 80 Sikhs in Kuching, and there were 110 Sikhs by 1906. The Sikh congregation, consisting mainly of police personnel and watchmen, decided to build a Gurdwara Sahib in Kuching in 1910. The government gave a site, measuring 0.37 acres, and made it obligatory for all Sikhs in Kuching to contribute at least one month’s salary towards the building fund.
The construction of a two-storey wooden building began on 1 March 1911, and the Gurdwara Sahib opened on 1 October 1912. An additional veranda was built around the around the new wooden temple.
A second Sikh temple was built in Miri in 1915, and a third temple was built in Bau in the early 1920s for the policemen and security personnel guarding the mines. By then, the Sikh population had grown to about 500 in Kuching and 240 in Miri.
A Sikh jailer was beheaded in 1932 during an expedition against rebel chief Asun of Kanowit and is believed to be the first Sikh to die in uniform in Sarawak.
Sarawak’s first Sikh hero was Constable Kartar Singh who had saved an English couple, the Jeffersons, from their burning home in Miri in 2 September 1939.
More than 300 Sikhs with their families were living in Kuching by the late 1930s. The management committee bought a shop in Carpenter Street in 1935 and a shop on India Street in 1940, and the rent from these two shops helped the upkeep of the Gurdwara Sahib premises.
The Japanese attacked Kuching early hours on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1941, and captured the Kuching police station manned by a few Sikh policemen. By late afternoon, the whole town was in their hands as the Punjabi was forced to retreat.
On Christmas Day, the Punjabi Regiment sailed up the Sarawak River to the border with Dutch East Indies or Indonesia before the Japanese caught up with them. Meanwhile, the Japanese had supported the Indian Independence League led by Chandra Bosem but could not persuade the captured Sikhs to support the league or join the Indian army.
The battalion medical officer, Subedar IMD Kalyan Singh Gupta, was held with the 50 men under his command at the Batu Lintang prisoner-of-war camp, where they were beaten and tortured for six months. Other Sikhs were held in Miri, where they were given half rations and daily beatings and subjected to forced labour. Sikhs in Kuching were among the many civilians tortured to death for helping the inmates detained by the Japanese at Batu Lintang during World War II.
After World War II, many Sikhs returned with their families to India. The Sikh temple in Bau closed in late 1950 as the Sikh population there declined. Many of those who remained in Sarawak worked in the police and as watchmen.
The Gurdwara Sahib in Kuching has been repaired on several occasions. But, as the Sikh Sangat or community grew in numbers over the years, the building became inadequate. The original wooden structure was finally demolished in 1980 to make way for a new temple with golden domes, which opened on 18 April 1982 by Ong Kee Hui, the then Malaysian Minister of Science, Technology and Environment.
There are six golden-coloured domes on top of the Gurdwara Sahib building. The Darbar Sahib or congregation hall is on the second floor, and the langgar hall or dining room, kitchen, library, office, a store and a guest are on the first floor. The Granthi’s quarters, store, guestroom and a hall are on the ground floor. During renovations in 1997, a lift was installed to improve accessibility.
There is an exhibition on the Sikh religion, history of Sikhs in Sarawak, Sikh culture, musical instruments and old photographs on the ground floor. A Punjabi school is run by volunteer teachers.
Dr Gurdarshan Singh Hans, who was born in 1943, is the first local-born Sikh to become a doctor in the State of Sarawak, and was the first Sikh in Sarawak to have been made a Datuk in 2001 by the State Government of Sarawak. The Borneo Sikh Games have been held every second year since 2004.
The Gurdwara Sahib in Kuching is currently completing a renovation and extension programme. About 75 Sikh families support its religious activities and weekly prayers are held on Sunday mornings at 9 a.m., and usually end with a meal prepared by the community.
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