A young but traditional Sikh has been elected to lead one of the Lower Mainland's largest and most moderate Sikh temples, and that has some of the older members concerned.

The Guru Nanak Sikh temple's president-elect is Amardeep Singh Deol, a 26-year-old software engineer, who campaigned on a promise to abide by an edict issued in India for Sikhs to eat sitting on the ground to practice humility.

The temple on 120th Street in Surrey was the site of a violent clash over the use of tables and chairs in the temple dining room 11 years ago.

Moderate Sikhs won out in the 1998 temple election and kept the tables and chairs, but now people are upset that their furniture is about to go.