Established in 1995, this Sikh temple along Yishun Ring Road is actually a merger of three older Sikh shrines. They are the Gurdwara Sahib Khalsa Sabha at Sembawang, Gurdwara Sahib Naval Police Sembawang and Gurdwara Sahib Jalan Kayu.
The Sikhs first settled in Sembawang in the 1920s and 1930s with the establishment of the Naval Base. Many of them worked in the Naval Police and as dockyard workers. As the Sikh community grew, they needed a Gurdwara (Sikh Temple) to fulfil their spiritual and welfare needs. In 1936, the Guru Khalsa Sabha was started in an attap hut at 13th milestone, Sembawang Road (Near the former Chong Pang Village). Another, the Gurdwara Sahib Naval Police, was registered later in 1960 by the Sikhs of the Naval Police Force. This Gurdwara later merged with Guru Khalsa Sabha in 1971, when the Naval Police Force was disbanded with the withdrawal of British military forces.
Over at Royal Air Force Seletar, there was also a Sikh community. Before World War II, there were a number of Sikhs serving in the Additional Police Force in the air base. The first Sikh shrine was established in the 1930s by Sikh police officers and housed within their barracks. When the Additional Police Force was dissolved in 1947, the community moved their shrine to an attap building in Jalan Kayu, and named it Gurdwara Sahib Jalan Kayu.
When the British withdrew their military forces in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many Sikhs moved out of Sembawang and Jalan Kayu to seek employment elsewhere. Some chose to return to India. Due to development in both areas in the 1990s, the temples had to be relocated. They finally merged to form Gurdwara Yishun in 1995.