San Jose, California

San Jose is the largest city of Santa Clara County, in Silicon Valley, California. San Jose Spotlight reported in December 2022 that more than 20,000 Sikhs live in the county. It is home to the Sikh Gurdwara San Jose, which a San Jose Spotlight fact brief of December 2025 rates as the largest Sikh place of worship in North America.

Key moments

• 1984: the gurdwara was founded by Jit Singh Bainiwal, Teja Singh, Pyara Singh Obhi and other sevadars, with early gatherings at a community centre. In 1986 the committee bought a small building on White Road, and from 1990 it bought land on Quimby Road, reaching about five acres.
• 1993 to 1994: the committee judged that site too small and chose a 40-acre property on Gurdwara Avenue in the Evergreen Hills.
• 2004: the first phase was completed, at about 10 to 12 million dollars (the gurdwara's history and a 2011 news report give different figures).
• April 2011: the expanded temple opened at Vaisakhi, with Governor Jerry Brown and Mayor Chuck Reed present. The 20 million dollar addition ran about 1.5 million over budget, the langar was expected to feed about 10,000 people, and the gurdwara had about 3,500 registered members, a news report of the day said.
• 2021: Taptejdeep Singh, 36, a VTA worker and member of the community, was killed in the mass shooting at the downtown San Jose light-rail yard.
• 2022: the California Assembly approved a resolution recognising Sikhs as a distinct ethnic and religious minority, written by Assemblymember Ash Kalra with help from San Jose Sikh leaders.

Today: the campus covers 40 acres, with a 37,000 square foot prayer hall, 35,000 square feet of kitchen and dining space, 12 classrooms and 11 apartments for priests and visitors. It reports weekly attendance of more than 10,000. San Jose is the newer Sikh California, built around technology work, next to the older farming settlements at Yuba City and Stockton.