Thousands of Sikhs visit Vancouver temple for 'miracle' Holy Book

Thousands of Sikhs visit Vancouver temple for 'miracle' Holy Book

By Stuart Hunter, Vancouver ProvinceAugust 12, 2009

VANCOUVER — Sikhs from around British Columbia are flocking to a Vancouver temple to see the "miraculous" Holy Book saved from the Khalsa Elementary School fire.

Many in the 100,000-strong community have visited the Gurdwara Sahib Khalsa Darbar to see the ornate, 1,430-page Siri Guru Granth Sahib, which survived the July 30 arson blaze that destroyed eight of 10 portable classrooms as well as the temple, causing an estimated $1 million in damage.

Despite the carnage, fire crews were able to pluck the Holy Book from one of the burnt-out, smoke-filled portables virtually untouched.

"Some people are saying it is a miracle," said Jasbir Singh Bhatia, principal of all four of the Khalsa schools. "It wasn't touched at all. The firefighters are heroes. A lot of people are going to see it — especially on weekends."

The Holy Book was usually kept overnight in a small, unlocked room in the portable. Each day, a Sikh priest would take it to the temple altar for prayer — but the fire occurred at approximately 7:45 a.m., before the priest arrived.

After the fire was doused, the book of sacred scripture, in poetry form, was carried on the head of a priest to the temple — in keeping with tradition — to safeguard it.

The Holy Book also survived a 2004 fire at the Punjabi private school operated by the Satnam Society. No arrests have been made in connection with the previous blaze.

"This is something very good that has happened to the community — why it happened, nobody knows," said Harinder Singh Sohi, chair of the B.C. Khalsa Darbar Society. "This is the most valuable thing to our community. It is like a living guru."

As priest Bhai Singh Kultar pulled back the book's pristine protective cloth on Wednesday, Khalsa graduate Jasmin Kaur Bassi, 15, called its salvation "a double miracle.

"The sheets weren't even burned and everything else around it was, so it was a miracle," said Bassi, now in Grade 10 at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School.

"A lot of people have come to see it — it is a double miracle."

Police are still looking for witnesses.

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