If you're not up for the scenic route along a matrix of alleyways through the bustling Pahurat fabrics market in Bangkok's Little India, you can always find Siri Guru Singh Sabha - the Sikh temple via one of the larger path off Chakrapet Road.

Firsttime visitors are invariably amazed to find this beautiful building of six soaring storeys, sprouting gold and white Mughal-Islamic-inspired domes above the crowd of Indian shops and restaurants.

My wife Sutamon and I select bandannas from a basket near the staircase. Covering your head is mandatory, to show humility before God.

An elderly Sikh woman, seeing Sutamon having some trouble getting her kerchief on straight, lends a hand. It's the first of many acts of kindness offered to us here.

On the second floor, two men in white with long beards walk the length of a long room to greet us.

"We come from Indian Punjab and are here to practice social work for the Sikh community," says one.

The fourth floor's carpeted congregation hall is plain yet palatial. The elegant, canopied shrine that is home to the venerable Guru Gobind Singh - the Sikh holy book - looks all the more impressive in the simple surroundings.

Devotees bow, press palms together and kneel before the shrine, offering small monetary donations. Visitors of any faith can take communion - sweetened cereal called prashad.

Every day the holy book is opened at random to a page, and that becomes the lesson of the day.

The apex of the temple on the sixth floor is reserved for prayers read by men and women from small shrines under ornate awnings. In each of the six or so rooms, the readers sit on platforms raised half a metre.

Immersed in their devotions, they are undisturbed by outsiders peeping in and taking photos.