Badrinath has hot springs at the base of a temple surrounded by some of the coldest inhabited terrain in the Himalayas, and pilgrims are expected to use them before going inside.
Revived, not simply built
Tradition credits the philosopher Adi Shankara with re-establishing organised worship at Badrinath in the eighth century, installing the black stone image of Vishnu now enshrined there after a period in which the site's earlier worship had reportedly lapsed, making the temple's founding as much a restoration as an original construction.
Bathing in Tapt Kund before entering
Pilgrims traditionally bathe in Tapt Kund, a naturally hot sulphur spring immediately beside the temple, before entering to worship, a practical accommodation to the freezing surrounding climate that has also acquired its own purificatory significance within the pilgrimage.
One of seven, not only one of four
Beyond its place among the four Char Dham sites, Badrinath is also the principal shrine among the Sapta Badri, a group of seven related Vishnu temples spread across the same Himalayan valley, each associated with a different aspect or episode of Vishnu's presence in the region, a wider devotional network that the temple's fame as a single Char Dham stop tends to obscure.