Chota Char Dham (Uttarakhand)
The Himalayan pilgrimage circuit of Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath, traditionally undertaken in that order during the short May-to-October window before winter snow closes the high routes.
Significance & tradition
The Himalayan Char Dham is understood as a journey of purification through increasingly remote and demanding terrain, tracing the sources of the Yamuna and Ganga before ascending to the two temple sites — a physically different kind of pilgrimage from the plains-based circuits above.
History
Pilgrimage to these four sites has a documented history stretching back over a thousand years, though the temples have been rebuilt and repaired repeatedly after earthquakes, avalanches, and, most recently, the 2013 Kedarnath flood — the structures visible today reflect that long history of damage and restoration rather than a single unbroken original.
How this list was compiled
An exhaustive, fixed list of exactly four sites, always visited in the same order.