Guru Ram Rai Darbar Sahib

Guru Ram Rai Darbar Sahib in Dehradun honours Baba Ram Rai, son of the seventh Sikh Guru, Har Rai. Expelled by the Sikh orthodoxy for altering a word of scripture before Aurangzeb to avoid giving offence, he and his followers made their home here in the mid-17th century, and his 'dera' in the 'Doon' is believed to be the origin of the name Dehradun. The central complex was finished in 1699, after his death, and the structure by 1706, with his wife Mata Panjab Kaur supervising the work.

Thanks to Ram Rai's cordial ties with Aurangzeb, who gave land and money, the building borrows heavily from Islamic architecture, with minarets, domes and a small Mughal-style garden, so that it looks more like a mosque than a gurdwara. The ASI restored its Mughal-style murals, some over 300 years old, in 2004–2014. Each year the Jhanda Mela, running from five days after Holi until Rama Navami, draws crowds who replace a hundred-foot tree-trunk flag wrapped in layers of cloth.