Why do Sikh temples serve free meals to everyone?
At the Golden Temple, over 100,000 free meals are served every day, and an emperor once had to sit on the floor to eat one.
▶ Start the storySikh temples serve free meals because sharing food as equals is part of the religion itself. Almost every gurdwara has a langar, a community kitchen that feeds anyone, free of charge, whatever their religion, caste, gender, wealth or ethnicity. Guests sit together on the floor, the food is always vegetarian, and the cooking and serving are done by volunteers as seva, selfless service.
The idea is about equality as much as hunger. Sikh tradition credits the founder, Guru Nanak, with introducing langar around 1500 in Punjab, in a society where segregation and untouchability were widely practised. Sitting in one row on the same floor quietly cancelled those divisions. The third Guru, Amar Das, made everyone who visited him eat in the langar before they could speak to him.
According to Sikh legend, that rule even applied to an emperor. When the Mughal ruler Akbar came to meet Guru Amar Das, he was not ushered in: he was invited to sit on the floor and eat with everyone first, and he readily agreed.
Today the scale is astonishing. The langar of the Golden Temple in Amritsar serves over 100,000 meals a day. During the COVID-19 pandemic, one gurdwara in Queens, New York, served more than 145,000 free meals in two months.
100,000+
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Recap
Langar means everyone eats the same simple vegetarian meal, side by side, served by volunteers, for free.
Surprising fact · According to Sikh legend, the Mughal emperor Akbar had to sit on the floor and eat in the langar before meeting Guru Amar Das.
Sources (3)
No source, no claim. Every fact in this lesson (17 claims) cites at least one of these.