The Badrinath temple has undergone some changes in the past 40 years, but only minor ones--notice that the facade of the temple gateways is largely unchanged.  The 1960 photo of the facade shows steep steps built out of block, with containers of Tulsi plants on the sides (Tulsi is one of the offerings that pilgrims make in Badrinath).  The presence of wires and colored light bulbs show that there was electricity in Badrinath even then--which indicates its considerable importance, since there was very little electricity in the hills then.  The photo from 2002, on the right, shows a much wider stairway of poured concrete, with a railing and another area below it. These changes probably reflect not only the temple's continuing prosperity, but also the need for better crowd control arrangements, as more and more people came to Badrinath.  (Left photo courtesy of John Palka, right courtesy of Sarah Helminski)

Here one can see both the renovations being done on the left side of the temple gate, and  the crowds milling around the temple gateway--during the peak times in the morning and the evening people would wait for hours to get in, and they were only allowed the briefest time to stop before the major image--not nearly long enough to do any proper worship, as I heard some of the pilgrims grumble.  The right hand photo shows us after our darshan--note that all of us have bare feet (since it is required to remove one's shoes when entering a temple) and Sarah has covered her head, which is customary practice for women. 

Until 1939, the Badrinath temple's head priest (known as the raval) had control over all the offerings made there as his personal property.  Since that time, the Badrinath temple had been controlled by a Temple Committee, and the raval has been restricted to ritual duties--but effectively stripped of control over the temple offerings.  Despite this, the Badrinath pandas still seemed to be earning considerable money, even during a year when everyone said that the tourist season was down.  Not one panda in Badrinath approached us to ask whether we would like to do puja (unlike the other spots), and there was so much pilgrim traffic that the local pandas hired "contract pandas" from other towns to perform rites for them.  Both of these signs point to considerable pilgrim traffic and lucrative earnings; these are consistent with Badrinath's status as the wealthiest and most important of the three sites.  (Photos courtesy Sarah Helminski)

Building has sprawled the most at Badrinath, probably because the wide valley (one of the common names is "Badri Vishal" or "wide-open Badri").  The left-hand photo shows the town in 1960, which was completely built on the temple side of the river.  In 1960 one had to walk from Joshimath, and the town in those days grew up around the pilgrim road in an organic way.  The photo on the right shows that this oldest part of the town has changed very little since that time, although we noted that many of the old town roofs were covered with blue plastic sheets--hinting that the buildings were getting old, and that the residents could not afford to do proper upkeep on them.  Although the temple is still the town's ritual focus, there is much heavier development on the other side of the river, since the motor road comes through here.  In this case, the advent of the road has significantly influenced building patterns.  (Left photo courtesy of John Palka; right from Nick Barootian).

The right hand photo shows some of the newest construction, again on the temple side of the river, but much further away.  There is still open land here (as is visible in the background), but these open spaces will probably disappear as the demand for space grows.  This new building is not only a multi-story construction, but also includes massive retaining walls necessary to keep it structurally safe.  Because there is no road access to that side, all the building materials--including piles of rocks from which laborers made gravel (right-hand photo)--were dumped near the riverbank on the other side, and carried over in handcarts or head loads.   This construction undoubtedly brings money into the local economy, but as the numbers mount, the demands on the environment grow ever greater.  (Photos courtesy of Nick Barootian)