3HO (Sikh Dharma Fellowship)

In 1969, Harbhajan Singh Puri (1929–2004), a Sikh from the Punjab, India, arrived in Los Angeles and began to teach the art of kundalini yoga. He adopted the name Yogi Bhajan, built a small following of students, and legally incorporated the Happy Healthy Holy Organization (3HO) by the end of that year. The life of this small group was structured around kundalini yoga practice, strict vegetarianism, and communal living. Early students of Yogi Bhajan went on to establish yoga centers in several American cities, including San Francisco, Santa Fe, Washington, D.C., and New York City.

In late December 1970, Yogi Bhajan took a group of his students to the Darbar Sahib, the inner sanctum of the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, the most sacred site in ...