The Sikh temple in rural Fairfield stands sentinel as an example of the determination of Solano County Sikhs - and the Sikhs before them who staked a claim to life in America.
But it's more than their religion, said Bruce La Brack, professor of anthropology and international studies at the University of the Pacific, Stockton.
It's the spirit of a people, he said.
"It's not a Sunday thing for them," La Brack said in a telephone interview. "I don't know any other group who have started in such inauspicious beginnings, and done as well as economically, socially and politically as the Sikhs have done."
La Brack will present a history of the immigration of Sikhs from Punjab, India, at the Punjabi Heritage Festival Sept. 6 at the Fairfield Center for Creative Arts.
La Brack, an authority on the immigration of South Asians, documented more than 100 years of the immigration of South Asians, including Sikhs, in his paper, "Early South Asian, (India) Immigrants in California," with special reference to the Sikhs.
"I think on one level, it's probably one of the most extraordinary immigration histories in the U.S., and probably the least known," La Brack said.
La Brack wrote that every South Asian's heritage includes the history of pioneer Punjabis who began arriving in California a century ago.
"Those hardy sojourners made America their home against great odds and a quiet grace," he wrote.
According to La Brack, Sikhs today number about 500,000 in the United States, a demographic profile that provides a stark contrast with the first half of the 20th century, when it seemed unlikely that they would thrive so far from home under economic and political challenges.
For the first 50 years, Sikhs and other South Asian immigrants were severely restricted in their choices of occupation, marriage partners, freedom to travel abroad, land-ownership, and mainstream political participation, but they reacted with remarkable endeavor and ingenuity, he wrote.
"If you were a betting person, you would have been very hard-pressed to find anyone who would bet that it was possible that Sikhs were going to survive," he said, particularly in the in the 1930s and 1940s.
There were never more than about 7,000 Sikhs in the United States at any one time, and by the mid-1940s and early '50s, there were only about 1,500, he said.
"So as a small number goes, I don't think you could get much smaller," La Brack said. "Of course all that has changed - completely."
"To examine the legal history of Sikhs in America before 1968 is an uncomfortable exercise for Americans who would like to naively believe that their government did not systematically practice legal discrimination and exclusion based upon race and national origin," La Brack wrote.
From the beginning, the darker complexion of Sikhs, their distinctive turbans, non-Christian faiths, food preferences and cultural traditions marked them as strangers and foreigners.
Sikh-Americans today have dealt with discrimination related to 9/11, and recently because of the war in Iraq, they have said.
"I think that in general, the Sikhs are still the victims of some backlash because they have head gear," La Brack said. "Not very many Americans can tell the difference between a Sikh, an Afghanistani, an Iraqi or an Eskimo.
"As a consequence, they sometimes are targeted simply because they are different. It's a fear of difference. It's also a fear of the unknown," he said.
With changes in immigration laws and the political climate in both India and America, Sikh migration escalated in the last half of the century, with the new immigrants an important and integral component of American society - a complete reversal of the circumstances prevalent in the early phases of South Asian life in America.
"Now they are in 60 countries worldwide," La Brack said. "This is an extraordinarily resilient community."
La Brack became interested in Sikhism in 1969 when he visited India as a post-graduate language fellow of the American Institute of Indian Studies.
"My landlord was a Sikh, one of my teachers was a Sikh, every taxi cab driver was a Sikh, and I got to know a lot of Sikhs in Delhi," La Brack said. He's also looked at Sikh communities in England and East Africa, the United States as well as Canada, he said.
"I have great respect for the Sikhs. They are very hard working, they have very strong family values, they believe in the value of saving and of investing," La Brack said. "And I don't know any other group that has been less of a burden on the society than the Sikhs have been."
Sikh-Americans are going to continue to adapt, be successful in business, and further integrate themselves into American society, he said.
"I also think they will maintain their distinctive traditions. In my opinion, that's what makes America great, you can do that," La Brack said. "We founded America on the principal of freedom of religion, and the Sikhs are practicing Sikhism."
Barbara Smith can be reached at dixon@thereporter.com.