Sikh families setting up a village in US

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Sikh families setting up a village in US

Friday, 09 January , 2004, 10:29

Imagine a Sikh village coming up in the US. Sounds a bit unusual, but around 1000 Sikh families are trying to build a village and gurdwara in Coronado historic district.

The village concept is not a new one. Sikh villages near gurdwaras are located throughout the world, wherever a sizable community exists, according to Sikhnet, an online Sikh community.

"The idea is to try and create a village here... we get up before dawn to meditate; that's hard to do when you are in your own apartment somewhere," reports Sikhnet in its newsletter quoting Soul Singh Khalsa, who has chosen to live in this village.

Having group support is vital if you are an athlete. It's the same thing in the spiritual realm, says Khalsa.

Khalsa is one of the dozens of Sikhs and their families who have chosen to live in modest homes near Seventh Street and McDowell Road where the new temple is being built to replace one the community had outgrown.

The hope is that it will be ready in six months, but completion depends on donations within the Sikh community, Sikhnet says.

The Sikh community in central Phoenix has grown steadily in the last 30 years. Many of the Sikh families have migrated from India in the late 1980s and 1990s for jobs in the high-tech industry.