Lotus Temple (Bahai House of Worship)

Lotus Temple (Bahai House of Worship) tickets and tours: which one to book

Entry to the Lotus Temple is free and no ticket is needed. Visitors join a queue at the gate, leave their shoes at a counter near the steps and are admitted to the central hall in groups, after a short briefing by volunteers about keeping silence inside. The queue can be long on weekends, but it moves steadily, and there is nothing to book in advance. Tours sold online therefore offer transport and context rather than access. Private city tours by car often pair the Lotus Temple with the Akshardham complex and the ISKCON temple, which stands on a hill a short distance away, giving a day built around modern places of worship in south Delhi.

Other private tours visit the temple alone with a guide and a transfer from your hotel; one variant markets the convenience of having a guide handle the queue, although there is no paid fast-track entrance. Early-morning walking tours with a guide start at dawn in the surrounding area and reach the temple when its gates open. For a livelier day, a tuk-tuk tour strings the temple together with the Jama Masjid in Old Delhi and India Gate. Independent travellers lose nothing by going alone. The Delhi Metro stops at Kalkaji Mandir, a few minutes' walk from the gate, and taxis and auto-rickshaws know the temple by name.

Visiting Lotus Temple (Bahai House of Worship): what to see and how to behave

The Lotus Temple is the Bahai House of Worship for the Indian subcontinent, designed by the Iranian-born architect Fariborz Sahba and opened to the public at the start of 1987. Bahai houses of worship are open to people of every faith, and here there is no altar, no images and no sermons; only readings from sacred texts of different religions are held at set times during the day. The building takes the shape of a half-open lotus flower: 27 free-standing petals of concrete clad in white Greek marble, arranged in three rings of nine. The outer petals form canopies over the nine entrances, and nine reflecting pools surround the base, appearing to float the flower on water.

Inside, the single hall rises over 30 m to a central skylight, and the light filtering between the petals is the real reason to go in. Engineers praised the structure on completion, and it has won several international awards. Visitors walk up through landscaped gardens of about ten hectares, pause on the terrace for photographs, and then file into the hall, where photography and talking are not permitted. Sit for a few minutes on the wooden benches before leaving. An information centre at the lower end of the grounds explains the Bahai faith and the construction of the building. The temple stands in Bahapur, near Kalkaji in south Delhi, close to the Kalkaji Mandir metro station.

Lotus Temple (Bahai House of Worship): opening hours, ceremonies and the best time to go

The temple is open from Tuesday to Sunday, from morning until early evening, with slightly longer hours in summer; it is closed on Mondays. Short prayer sessions with readings are held several times a day, and sitting in on one is the most rewarding way to experience the hall. The best time is shortly after opening on a weekday, before school groups arrive. Late afternoon is good for photographs, when the marble turns warm in colour and the pools reflect the sky, although queues grow towards closing.

From October to March Delhi is at its most pleasant; April to June is extremely hot, and the monsoon months bring heavy showers. Public holidays and weekends draw the largest crowds. Allow about an hour, including the queue and the gardens. Combine the visit with the ISKCON temple and the Kalkaji temple nearby, and with Humayun's Tomb or the Qutub Minar later in the day.