LAHORE: A centuries-old gurdwara in Padhana, a border village in Lahore district where the sixth Sikh Guru is said to have stayed, has been restored after decades of neglect, giving Sikh pilgrims another heritage site to visit on the Pakistani side of the frontier.
The Punjab Walled City and Heritage Areas Authority (PWCA) carried out the conservation of Gurdwara Sri Guru Hargobind Sahib with the provincial Human Rights and Minorities Affairs Department. Teams repaired the exterior dome and main structure, restored the interior corridors and rebuilt the historic langar hall, using traditional materials and building techniques, the authority said.
“Every brick, arch and detail has been preserved using traditional materials and techniques to safeguard Punjab’s diverse cultural fabric for generations to come,” the PWCA said in a statement accompanying before-and-after photographs.
Padhana lies in the Burki area of Lahore district, about half a kilometre from the border with India, according to Sikh historical records. Guru Hargobind, the sixth of the ten Sikh Gurus, who lived from 1595 to 1644, is believed to have halted at the village on his journey between Lahore and Amritsar.
Sikh tradition holds that he came to Padhana from the nearby village of Dhilvan at the invitation of devoted villagers, and held discourses with a leading local landowner, Jalhan. A simple shrine first marked the spot; it was later rebuilt as a larger building under the village chief, Sardar Attar Singh, with a committee running the langar.
Like many Sikh shrines in western Punjab, the gurdwara fell out of use after Partition in 1947, when the village’s Sikh population migrated to India. It had been affiliated with the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee until then. Over the following decades, displaced families lived in parts of the premises, and the structure slowly deteriorated.
The restoration is part of a wider effort by the Punjab government to recover and conserve Sikh heritage. In July, the Gurdwara Patshahi Chhevin in Lahore, another shrine linked to Guru Hargobind, reopened for worship for the first time since Partition after the district administration cleared the site of illegal occupants. Minorities Affairs Minister Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora, who also heads the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, has led the push.
The timing matters. Thousands of Sikh pilgrims from India and the diaspora travel to Pakistan each year, most through the Wagah border just a few kilometres from Padhana. Last November, more than 2,000 Indian pilgrims arrived for Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary at Nankana Sahib, and a similar jatha is expected next month for the 557th anniversary.
For Pakistan, such projects carry a message beyond conservation: that the country is protecting the faith heritage of its minorities and welcoming those who come to pray. Officials did not say when the Padhana gurdwara would open to pilgrims, what the restoration cost, or whether regular services would resume.
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