Badrinath Temple
— — the shrine the snow gives back each spring.
Not only on a wall.
“A Hindu temple to Vishnu set on the right bank of the Alaknanda River at about ten thousand feet, between the Nar and Narayan ranges of the Garhwal Himalaya. Open only from late April or early May through November; closed under heavy snow the rest of the year. The Tapt Kund hot springs run below the steps. One of the four Char Dham, walked by pilgrims for more than a thousand years. from the studio
Badrinath Temple, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Badrinath Temple stands in the town of Badrinath in Chamoli District, Uttarakhand, in the Garhwal Himalaya of northern India. The temple sits at roughly three thousand one hundred metres above sea level on the right bank of the Alaknanda River, between the Nar and Narayan mountain ranges and within sight of Neelkanth peak. It is dedicated to Vishnu in his form as Badri Narayan and is one of the four Char Dham, the major Hindu pilgrimage sites. The present structure was substantially restored by the kings of Garhwal in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The temple opens for the year on a date set by the priests of the Tehri Garhwal royal house, usually in late April or early May, and closes in mid-November before the heaviest snow. Through the closed months the deity's daily worship moves down to Joshimath, some forty-five kilometres south at lower elevation. The road from Joshimath is single-lane in long stretches and is regularly cut by monsoon-season landslides between July and September, the months pilgrims plan around when they can.
Approach is by road from Rishikesh, about three hundred kilometres south, via Devprayag, Rudraprayag, and Joshimath. The Tapt Kund hot springs sit just below the temple steps on the riverbank; pilgrims bathe before entry. Adi Shankaracharya, the eighth-century reformer who codified the Char Dham, is credited with re-establishing worship at the site, and a small shrine to him stands nearby. The village of Mana, the last Indian settlement before the Tibetan border, is three kilometres further up the valley.