Small but awesomely kitsch: inside Vashnu Mata Temple you climb into the very claustrophobic inner grotto through a concrete lion's mouth and emerge eventually via the jaws of a crocodile.
It's 200m up the climbing road from Bhagsu's main square.
Lonely Planet's must-see attractions
0.96 MILES
McLeod's main focus for visiting pilgrims, monks and most tourists is the Tsuglagkhang complex, a custard-coloured concrete monastic village that's home…
3.63 MILES
Soothingly set amid bamboo, trees and flowing water, the delightful Norbulingka Institute, 6km southeast of Dharamsala, was established in 1988 to teach…
22.71 MILES
Between Palampur and Bir, don't miss a stop in Baijnath, whose uninteresting main-street buildings hide one of Himachal's most exquisite ancient temples…
Lakshmi Narayan Temple Complex
24.74 MILES
Far and away Chamba's top historical attraction, this temple compound crowning Dogra Bazaar contains a line of six beautifully sculpted stone sikharas …
25.53 MILES
Meaning 'honoured flame', Jawal-Ji is Jawalmukhi's main temple and raison d'être, enshrining natural eternal flames that are said to mark the legendary…
16.48 MILES
Rare for North India, Masrur's elaborate if severely eroded sandstone sikharas were hewn from living rock between the 8th and 10th centuries. With a…
0.97 MILES
This must-see, two-storey museum sets out to remind visitors of Tibet's history as an independent nation, mourning the Chinese occupation (since 1949) and…
26.18 MILES
The upland area of Dhainkund (2745m) is the most uplifting of many beauty spots around Dalhousie, with a 360-degree panorama encompassing the Pir Pinjal…
Nearby Dharamsala attractions
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Bhagsu's small, 16th-century Shiva temple would be forgettable but for the cold, clean, spring-fed pool out front. This has been enlarged into an open-air…
0.38 MILES
This flourishing arts school keeps traditional Tibetan dance, music and colourful folk opera (lhamo) very much alive among the exile community. Irregular…
0.43 MILES
From Bhagsu's Shiva temple pools, a well-paved 1km path leads up the streamside to Bhagsu waterfall, most impressive during the monsoon.
0.69 MILES
Ringed by colourful prayer wheels, this recently built temple between Temple and Jogiwara Rds is generally known as the Chorten (Tibetan for stupa), since…
0.73 MILES
Through a gallery-cafe and film screenings, this organisation tells the tales of individual Tibetan lives as a way to illustrate Tibet's plight.
6. Gu-Chu-Sum Movement Gallery
0.74 MILES
A charity that assists current and former Tibetan political prisoners, Gu-Chu-Sum has a gallery displaying harrowing photos chronicling oppression in…
0.75 MILES
About as far as you can drive into Dharamsala's rugged mountain backdrop, the tiny temple of Gallu Devi is a good destination for a short but satisfying…
0.79 MILES
At the base of a long flight of steps off of Nowrojee Rd, this peaceful gompa was built in 1987 to replace the original Dip Tse Chokling Gompa in Tibet,…