Nepal · Madhesh
Where to Stay in Janakpur, Madhesh
Janakpur is a holy city of the Nepali Terai, the reputed birthplace of Sita and the site of the great Janaki Mandir, a centre of the Maithili people.
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Where to stay in Janakpur
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Where you stay in Janakpur turns on the temple or the town. The lanes around the Janaki Mandir keep the shrine, the ponds, and the bazaars within a walk, and staying by the temple suits anyone here for the pilgrimage. The white temple rises over the roofs.
Pilgrims fill the temple lanes. Out toward the ponds and the plain, the town gives way to sacred tanks, rice fields, and quiet villages. A room by the ponds trades the bazaars for the holy tanks, the bathing steps, and the green fields of the Terai.
The plain runs flat past the edge. Stay by the temple for the shrine, or by the ponds for the tanks. The temple lies a short way in.
About Janakpur
Janakpur is the temple city of Sita.
What is Janakpur known for?
On the flat Terai plain of the southern Nepali lowland, it is held to be the birthplace of Sita and the old capital of the Mithila kingdom, and it keeps the great white Janaki Mandir raised over her shrine, the sacred ponds where pilgrims bathe, the bright Mithila painting of its people, and the wedding festival that draws crowds each year. Around Janakpur the Terai spreads out level and green. Ponds lie among the temples.
What are the main landmarks in Janakpur?
The Janaki Mandir is the heart of Janakpur. The great white marble temple, built over the shrine of Sita in a mix of Mughal and Nepali style, rises above the town, the emblem of the city, over the plain. Sacred ponds lie nearby.
The holy tanks of Ganga Sagar and Dhanush Sagar draw pilgrims to bathe, while the wedding temple, the bright Mithila art, and the old bazaars mark the streets of Janakpur.
What is the history of Janakpur?
Janakpur is the ancient Mithila of King Janaka. In the old tales this was the capital of the Videha kingdom, where the wise king Janaka ruled and his daughter Sita was born, she who married Rama in the great epic of the Ramayana. Pilgrims have long come here.
For ages the faithful have journeyed to the birthplace of Sita and the ground of her wedding, keeping the story alive on the plain. The great temple came later. A queen of the north built the marble Janaki Mandir over Sita's shrine a century ago, raising the grandest temple of the Nepali plain, and the city grew around it as a place of pilgrimage.
Mithila kept its own ways. The Maithili people held to their language, their painted art, and their festivals through the years, and Janakpur remained the heart of Mithila and the goal of Sita's pilgrims. The temple still draws the faithful.
Janakpur keeps its temple and its ponds on the Terai plain.
Where is Janakpur?
Janakpur lies in the south of Nepal, on the flat Terai plain near the Indian border. The city stands on the level lowland where the rivers come down from the Himalaya and spread across the plain, in a green country of rice and sacred ponds, far below the mountains to the north. The plain runs flat to the border.
Ponds dot the green country.
What is the climate of Janakpur?
Janakpur has a hot, humid subtropical climate. Hot weather holds much of the year on the plain, with a heavy summer monsoon, a mild winter, and dusty heat before the rains. The monsoon floods the plain.
Winter mornings turn misty and cool.
How do you get to Janakpur?
Janakpur lies on the Terai plain, near the Indian border south of Kathmandu. Buses and a rail line run to it across the plain from the border and the highway, and roads lead north to the hills. Lanes ring the sacred ponds.
Kathmandu lies north over the mountains.
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Updated August 2026