Gurdwara Bangla Sahib

Gurdwara Bangla Sahib tickets and tours: which one to book

Gurdwara Bangla Sahib is free and open to all, whatever their faith, and there is nothing to book. You leave your shoes at the free shoe counter, cover your head with a scarf from the baskets at the entrance if you have not brought one, rinse your feet in the shallow channel and walk in. That said, a guided visit is well worth considering, especially on a first trip to India. Several Delhi walking and city tours stop here, and a few are built entirely around the gurdwara and Sikh culture. They explain the basics of Sikh belief, take you through the prayer hall and round the holy tank, and lead you into the community kitchen, where you can help roll chapatis alongside the volunteers and then sit on the floor to share the free meal.

A good guide makes the etiquette feel easy and opens conversations with the sevadars, the volunteers who run the place. These tours usually include the guide and sometimes transport from your hotel; the meal itself is always free, and a donation to the kitchen is customary but never required. The gurdwara is just west of Connaught Place on Baba Kharak Singh Marg, a short walk from the Patel Chowk and Rajiv Chowk metro stations, so it is easy to visit independently and slots neatly into a day in central New Delhi.

Visiting Gurdwara Bangla Sahib: what to see and how to behave

The site was once a bungalow belonging to Raja Jai Singh of Amber, where the eighth Sikh Guru, the child Guru Har Krishan, stayed during a visit to Delhi in 1664. During a smallpox and cholera epidemic he tended to the sick and gave water from the well here; he caught the disease himself and died aged seven. A Sikh general built a small shrine on the spot in 1783, and the present white marble gurdwara with its golden dome and tall flagpole, the Nishan Sahib, grew around it in the 20th century. Inside the main hall the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh scripture, rests under a canopy while musicians sing hymns from it almost continuously; you can sit on the carpet at the back to listen, keeping your feet pointing away from the scripture.

Visitors receive karah prasad, a sweet offering, in cupped hands as they leave. Beside the hall lies the large sarovar, the holy tank, fed from the water associated with the Guru's healing; many Sikhs take some of it home. Walk around it on the marble terrace, and resist dipping in unless you are joining the faithful. The langar, the community kitchen, serves free vegetarian meals to thousands of people every day, cooked by volunteers in vast cauldrons; seeing the kitchen at work is one of the most memorable things in Delhi. The complex also houses a hospital and diagnostic centre run by the gurdwara committee, a girls' school and a small museum. Keep your head covered everywhere inside the complex, do not smoke, and ask before photographing people at prayer.

Gurdwara Bangla Sahib: opening hours, ceremonies and the best time to go

The gurdwara is open all day and all night, and the kitchen serves food around the clock. Early morning, when the scripture is ceremonially opened and the first hymns are sung, is beautifully calm, while the evening, when the scripture is carried to its resting place and the dome is lit, has a quieter atmosphere of its own. Midday sees the busiest langar sittings. Delhi is most pleasant from October to March;

in summer the marble terraces are scorching underfoot, so come early or after sunset when the stone has cooled. Sundays and Sikh holy days bring very large crowds. The birth anniversary of Guru Har Krishan, Guru Nanak's birthday in November and Vaisakhi in April are the great occasions, with processions, lights and enormous langar. Allow an hour, or longer if you help in the kitchen. Combine it with Connaught Place, Jantar Mantar a short walk away, and the government buildings around India Gate.