Janaki Mandir, Janakpur

Janakpur is Nepal's great city of the Ramayana. Here, the story goes, King Janaka of Videha found a baby girl in a furrow of his field and named her Sita; here she grew up, and here Rama broke the mighty bow of Shiva to win her in marriage. For millions of Hindus in Nepal and India, Janakpur is Sita's home and a place of pilgrimage.

The temple

The Janaki Mandir is the city's centrepiece: a large, white, three-storeyed temple with domes, turrets and fretted windows in a Rajput–Mughal style unlike anything in the Nepali hills. It was funded by Queen Vrishabhanu Kumari of Tikamgarh, in central India, and completed around 1910–11. Its cost of nine lakh rupees gave it the nickname Nau Lakha Mandir. The temple tradition holds that an image of Sita was found on this spot by a saint in the 17th century.

Visit at dusk, when the evening aarti fills the courtyard with bells and song and the façade is lit up. Part of the complex houses a museum with Mithila art and Ramayana displays.

Around the temple

Next door, the Vivah Mandap is a pavilion marking the site of Rama and Sita's wedding, with painted scenes and idols of the couple. A short walk away is the Ram Mandir, a pagoda-roofed temple in Nepali style. Janakpur is known as the city of ponds: Gangasagar and Dhanush Sagar are the most sacred, with evening aarti at Gangasagar and thousands gathering at their ghats for Chhath.

Festivals

Vivah Panchami, in the month of Mangsir, re-enacts the royal wedding with a procession from Ayodhya's side and days of celebration. Ram Navami, Holi and Chhath are also huge here. Each Falgun, pilgrims walk the Madhya Parikrama, a 15-day circuit around the holy sites of Mithila on both sides of the border.

Beyond the temples

Janakpur is also the centre of Mithila painting: visit the Janakpur Women's Development Centre at Kuwa to see artists at work. Ride the cross-border train from Janakpurdham station, and make a half-day trip to Dhanushadham, where a fragment of Shiva's bow is said to have fallen.