Travel Guide Janakpur

106 km from Birgunj, Janakpur is worth a visit for its unreal atmosphere of a city of yesteryear, as if plucked from Indian mythology. Built from time immemorial according to a well-defined plan based on religious rules, the town was undoubtedly an important center of religious learning. Today, the disadvantages of modernity are obvious: dirtiness and lack of maintenance... A multitude of Hindu sanctuaries (over a hundred temples) - including the Hanuman temple, over which a living monkey presides - and numerous ritual ponds surround the city. Markets display their highly original wares, including Mithila handicrafts. Planks carved with geometric motifs are used as bread moulds, clay statuettes are painted in bright colors and semi-abstract paintings are made by women according to an ancestral tradition. Another of Janakpur's attractions is its train, which runs for 30 km to India and is Nepal's only railway network.