Lexington’s Sikh community finds home for its temple, has open house

The buttons being distributed at the new Sikh worship house in north Lexington feature a turbaned man with a beard and just four words: “Don’t freak. I’m Sikh.”

Turbans are part of Sikh religious observance for men and women. Although its members are sometimes mistaken for members of ISIS or the Taliban, the Sikh religion originated in the Punjab region of what is now Pakistan and northern India.

Sikhs believe that there is one God for all of creation; advocate work, worship and service; deny racial, class, caste and other distinctions and recognize the equality between women and men.

Lexington’s Sikh community has recently located its worship center on Swigert Avenue because of its spaciousness and 109 parking spaces. The Sikhs have held outreach gatherings for area neighborhoods, sharing food and information about the Sikh religion.

The congregation numbers include about 50 families and draws from as far away as Morehead, Frankfort, Lebanon and sometimes even Pikeville.

The Lexington Gurudwara — or place of worship — joins Kentucky’s other Gurudwara, in Louisville. It is open all day for anyone to visit. A morning ceremony brings out sacred scripture from a nearby room into the big worship hall, while the book is removed after evening prayer.

“They are very good neighbors,” said Surjit Singh Dhooper, who has been organizing Sikh gatherings in Lexington for decades, said of the nearby Joyland-area residents.

Dhooper, 82, a retired professor of social work at the University of Kentucky, said that the 13,400-square-foot building on eight acres is far better as a central home for Sikhs throughout Central and Eastern Kentucky than shuttling between members’ houses, which was the practice before.

Once people get past the religious customs of turbans, uncut hair and beards, they find that Sikhs are excellent neighbors with a bent for service and community-building, Dhooper said.

Neighbor Debbie Aminoff recently visited the Sikh congregation after an invitation to the neighborhood to sample food and learn about the Sikh religion.

Aminoff said she was “very favorably impressed. They were extremely warm and welcoming.”

“That’s our biggest message to the Lexington community,” said Sudha Chopra, a spokesman for the new Sikh Gurudwara — or place of worship. Her church name is Sudha Kaur Khalsa. “Kaur,” meaning princess, is a mandatory last name for all Baptized female Sikhs, although it is often used as a middle name. Men take the last name “Singh,” or lion. Some Sikhs replace their original surname; others add the religious name before the surname.

“Once you know us and our value system, you will have no problem. We are part of the community, and we are here to serve the community.”

Chopra was not born a Sikh. She went to a convent school in India, attended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and worked at Lexmark. She married a Sikh and converted.

Sikhs were in the national news recently when, in late March, the U.S. Army gave Capt. Simratpal Singh a long-term religious accommodation to serve with long hair, a beard and turban in accordance with his Sikh faith. Singh is a West Point graduate, Army Ranger and Bronze Star recipient.

“To engage in service for others is an opening for us to experience much more,” Chopra said. “It’s a liberating feeling.”

Dhooper came to the United States 46 years ago from Punjab. Initially, he settled in Cleveland, where the Sikh community was between 40 and 50 families; when he came to Lexington almost 32 years ago, there were fewer than 20 Sikh families.

For Sikhs, God is “not something or someone who sits up there in the heaven and organizes the world,” Dhooper said. “The Sikh idea is that God pervades all of life. To see him in everyone and everything is the purpose of life.”

Sikhs advocate unity through diversity, Dhooper said: “If you do that, nobody is your enemy.”

Although the Lexington Gurdwara has a meeting on Sunday, the day Sunday holds no special relevance as a sabbath: “Any day is as good as any other,” Dhooper said.

“Our biggest challenge is awareness,” Chopra said. “Know me, and you will have no problem with me.”

This story was originally published April 8, 2016 at 1:36 PM with the headline "Lexington’s Sikh community finds home for its temple, has open house."