Gurdwara Janam Asthan, Nankana Sahib

Gurdwara Janam Asthan is the premier shrine of Nankana Sahib, in Sheikhupura district of Pakistan's Punjab. It marks where Guru Nanak Dev Ji was born on 15 April 1469. The town was then Talvandi Rai Bhoe and was later named for the Guru.

Its builders in order: The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says a room was first built here by Guru Nanak's son Baba Lakhmi Das, more probably by his grandson Baba Dharam Chand (1523 to 1618), and became known as Kalu ka Kotha, later Nanakayan. Maharaja Ranjit Singh, at the instance of Akali Phula Singh and Baba Sahib Singh Bedi, built the present building, a domed square sanctum with a pavilion in front on a raised platform, and endowed about 20,000 acres for Guru ka Langar. Udasi priests managed the shrine until the SGPC took it over after February 1921.

Key moments

• 15 April 1469: Guru Nanak Dev Ji is born.
• 20 February 1921: during the Gurdwara Reform movement, a jatha of 150 Sikhs is attacked inside the shrine by men of the Udasi priest Mahant Narain Das. The Encyclopaedia says estimates of the dead run from 82 to 156; Bhai Lachhman Singh was burnt alive. The Mahant was sentenced to death in October 1921, and the High Court reduced his sentence to life in March 1922.
• 1921: the government hands the shrine to a committee of seven Sikhs headed by Sardar Harbans Singh of Attari, vice-president of the SGPC.
• 1947: management of all gurdwaras in Pakistan passes to the Waqf Board. Pakistan lets 15 Sikhs stay for daily services, reduced to five in 1968; the Encyclopaedia says now only a granthi and a few Sindhi Sikhs stay.
• November 2024: about 2,550 Indian pilgrims cross at Attari-Wagah for the 555th Parkash Purb, including a 750-member SGPC jatha. The SGPC says Pakistan rejected 1,481 of its 2,244 visa applications.
• 5 November 2025: the main event for the 556th Parkash Purb is held here for over 2,000 Indian Sikh pilgrims.

Where it stands: Pakistan's Evacuee Trust Property Board looks after minority holy places, and Wikipedia says the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee manages this shrine under the federal government. Indian Sikhs visit in organised jathas on Pakistani visas, mainly for Guru Nanak's Parkash Purb.