Climbing Parasnath Hill
(vero;2025-Dec-12)
Our next stop after leaving Rajgir was the village of Madhuban, located at the foot of Parasnath Hill. This sacred mountain is the place where twenty of the twenty-four Jain Tirthankaras (supreme preachers and teachers of Dharma i.e. the righteous path) attained Nirvana along with many other monks and as such is the holiest pilgrimage site for Jains in India. The hill is named after Parasnath, the 23rd Tirthankara and each of the Tirhankaras is commemorated with his own shrine or temple along the ridges of the hill.
Getting there was a bit of a planning challenge and we were not too sure how to get there: it is quite off the beaten track for western tourists and information was scarce. Most blogs we found were from pilgrims who come here travelling by bus in organised groups or in their own cars.
The travel day was a bit long but it worked all well in the end: we had booked two seats on a train between Gaya and Parasnath a few days before (no 12802 PURUSHOTTAM EXP - 187.7 Rs for two) which was scheduled to arrive at 12:40 in Gaya, so to be sure to be there on time, we took an early bus in Rajgir (120 Rs per person) and once in Gaya took a tuk-tuk to the train station (40 Rs per person). Surprise, the train arrived earlier as planned (which did not prevent it from arriving in Parasnath 35 minutes late), not so bad in the bigger scheme of things!
We had expected to find crowds of pilgrims getting off the train in Parasnath but it was a complete non-event: there was hardly anybody around. We eventually found a shared taxi for 100 Rs per person which brought us to Madhuban and dropped us at a corner in the middle of the main street running through the village. We were a bit worried to arrive without any booking and without a clue as to what kind of accommodation we would find in this pilgrim town. It proved to be totally easy: we stepped out of the taxi and had hardly any time to look around, when a lady stepped out of a building and told us she had a room available if we were looking for one. We would not have guessed a hotel when in front of the building, but it turned to be quite big, geared for pilgrim groups; everything was in Hindi (as nearly everything in town) and there was no sign (that we could read). It worked for us, although it was quite noisy with many pilgrim groups arriving very late in the evening or even in the middle of the night and settling in their rooms in a very Indian (loud) style or other groups leaving for the climb in the (sometimes very) early hours.
We climbed the hill the day after our arrival. We had rented some walking sticks the day before (15 Rs each) and left our hostel at 08:00. The climb was easy to follow, with a concrete path most of the way and when there were some stairs, the steps were not too high. We reached the summit ridge at 10:30 and were back in Madhuban at 16:00.
We had a good time, there was a great atmosphere and the views are very rewarding once on the high altitude plateau with white temples and shrines dotted along ridges against a bright blue sky. A flight of steps leads to the summit (1350m altitude) crowned by a white marble main temple (Svarna Bhadra Koot meaning "cottage of golden grace"). This is where puja is done and it can get quite crowded. Enterprising photographers have set-up their business there and take photos of the pilgrims which they print on the spot and sell as a nice souvenir to take away.
It is not so much the temples that make the climb so special, it is mostly the experience of being there in itself: climbing the hill with the pilgrims, some of them going with socks only, others being carried on dolies by two or four porters. Some die-hard pilgrims did climb the "right" way, meaning with bare feet and a few men as naked as they could be, only covering their genitals with white loincloths. However, most people were dressed normally and many circumvented the bare feet obligation by wearing ankle support bandages on their feet or having socks open on both ends, a good compromise to protect the soles of their feet.
Going down was easy, just a bit annoying when motorbikes came roaring up the hill looking for wary pilgrims to bring down to Madhuban on their back saddle.
We stayed one more day in Madhuban. After a bit of laundry we explored the village. The houses of local people seemed quite poor and there were cows and goats roaming around. We were shocked during our evening stroll to discover that the Doli porters were sleeping rough on the street.
There is a multitude of Jain temples around; some are impressive, huge affairs all in white marble, while others were still in the process of being built and surrounded by building waste. And everywhere some dharamshalas to accommodate all those pilgrims.
We paid a visit to the Jain museum which showcases all things related to Jainism: from sacred objects to architecture style, there is a statue of Lord Parasnath in the meditation posture, a collection of Indian and international postage stamps featuring Jains and Jainism and most entertaining, a huge diorama of fifty scenes each depicting key events of Jainism and Mahavira's life (the 24th and last Tirthankara).
There was a good vibe in the village and people were happy and chatty, proud of having made the climb and quite curious about us: why are we here? are we Jains? How did we hear about Parasnath?
One thing is clear, there are not many western tourists around and these nice ladies were happy to chant for us!
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$ updated from: Blog.htxt Wed 17 Dec 2025 16:13:39 trvl2 — Copyright © 2025 Vero and Thomas Lauer unless otherwise stated | All rights reserved $