How to Visit the Lotus Temple – New Delhi, India

The Lotus Temple (also known as the Baha’i House of Worship) is one of the coolest looking buildings I’ve ever seen. Shaped just like the lotus flower, this temple is one of the seven Bahá’í Houses of Worship places in the world. Tourists as well as those practicing the Bahai religion are welcome at the site. Let’s explore how to visit the Lotus Temple in New Delhi.

Quick Overview – Lotus Temple, New Delhi India

Admission: Free. One caveat to this – because this is a free attraction, it can get extremely busy. If you want to visit, I suggest arriving right at the 9am opening time, like we did. During my time living in New Delhi, I made 4 attempts to visit the Lotus Temple before I was finally able to come here, due to the surrounding traffic and crowds.

Hours: 9am – 5pm. Closed on Mondays.

Visiting the Lotus Temple

One of the interesting aspects of visiting the Lotus Temple is that it’s a very peaceful, quiet place surrounded by a remarkably large, open green space in such a dense, heavily populated, bustling city.

The building itself resembles a flowering lotus. It’s made up of 27 petals made of marble and construction was completed in 1986, making it a relatively new tourist attraction and landmark in New Delhi.

When you arrive at Lotus Temple, you’ll follow a walking path surrounded by gardens up to the temple. As you approach the temple, there will be a station where you will be asked to remove your shoes. The attendant will give you a token for you to claim your shoes when you return.

At this point, your visit gets more…regimented as a tourist. There are rules regarding when and where you can walk, as well as queues! Typically, there is a long line to enter the temple, but during my visit, we were there early enough that there was no line, so we were able to go right in.

Inside, pews are arranged in a circular pattern around the temple and you are welcome to sit down and mediate if you’d like. Everything inside the temple is symmetrical, so it’s interesting to see how this is all arranged, although in the spirit of honestly, it’s essentially vacant hall with benches. So, for me, if there was a long line to get in, I’d probably skip it.

Photography is not allowed inside the temple.

After visiting the temple, there is a museum you can enter (it’s free) to learn more about the construction of Lotus Temple, as well as lots of information on the Bah’ai faith. Prior to my visit to the Lotus Temple, I knew nothing about this religion, so it was interesting to see what it was all about.

I visited Lotus Temple in December, right at opening, so crowds weren’t that bad. The only disappointing part about visiting here during the winter months is that the beautiful pool outside the temple is drained (yes, it does get cold in Delhi!). When the pools are filled, you can get some beautiful photos of the temple.

Lotus Temple – Final Thoughts

Architecturally speaking, this is an extremely unique and interesting building. I’ve never seen anything like it! However, if your time in Delhi is limited, I would say skip this, unless this is something that truly interests you. It’s located far from other tourist attractions so it may take you a little while to get out here. However, it won’t take you long to visit – as long as you are here at 9am! – and your visit can even be shorter if you skip the museum.

Have you visited the Lotus Temple in New Delhi, India? What did you think?