Sikhs call their tradition the “Sikh Panth,” meaning the “community (panth) of the disciples of the Guru.” The tradition reveres a lineage of ten Gurus, beginning with Guru Nanak in the 16th century and coming to a clos. with the death of Guru Gobind Singh in 1708. Thereafter, the Divine Word of scripture became authoritative as the Guru Granth Sahib. The Sikh population currently numbers over fifteen million. While the Sikh heartland continues to be the Punjab in northwest India, Sikhs have now settled throughout the world, especially in Kenya, England, and North America.

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