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Janakpur was the capital of
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Mithila when Janak ruled as the King. Janaki (or Sita), daughter of Janak was married by Ram, the son of King Dasratha. For the marriage king wanted his son in law to be brave enough to handle the bow of lord Shiva. Janak arranged a festival calling the entire prince of neighboring countries and announced that anyone who could lift the bow he Janaki would marry the price. Nobody could lift the bow. At last prince Ram tried, surprisingly not only did he lift the bow, he broke the bow while putting an arrow on it. The bow was broken into three pieces, one piece went to heaven, second fell to the hell from where water started to come out and third one (the middle part) landed on the Dhanushadham.
The journey to these historic places started from Illam after finishing the works (16hrs per day) at the field office of Mai hydropower project. On the next day after staying at Mirchaiya (at Nishant’s) we planned the circuit tour of Dhanush temple- Janakpur- Jaleshwor. Haat bazzar at Mirchaiya was as colourful as the rainbow while the reflection of setting sun on the pond was amazing.
Dhanush Mandir (the bow temple) located at Dhanushadham still preserves the bow of lord Shiva that Ram broke. Scientifically, there is a tree at the temple whose root is growing in the shape of Dhanush (the bow). Dhanush temple is about 20km from Dhalkebar, and about 123 km south east of Kathmandu.
The temple lies in the mid of terai village of Nepal. Beside Dhanush temple there is Ram-Janaki temple which has beautiful carvings on its wall. Mithila is also famous for art and culture. And a glipse of this beautiful art could be seen at this temple.
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After Dhanush temple, next spot was the capital of Mithila, Janakpur. Janakpur is about half hour ride from Dhanush temple. Janakpur is filled with ponds and fishes and temples. Sankata temple, Das Vigha (open field), Ram Mandir and many other temples beautifies this place. However the center of attraction is the Janaki Temple. This temple is the evidence of richness of Mithila art. It also signifies the glory of this historic kingdom. Bibah mandap where Janaki and Ram were declared husband and wife is also located on the side of Janaki temple. A garden is maintained and idols of Ram, Janaki, Janak and other people are put in this temple. During Bibha Panchami (the anniversary of Ram- Janaki wedding) a big festival is organized in this city by the devoted Hindu pilgrims.
We left Janakpur and headed towards Jaleshwor where lord Shiva was supposed to rest inside the water. Jaleshwor is about 45 minutes ride from Janakpur with narrow road. Jaleshwor is a small town with people of terai origin. Jaleshower got its name from the name of temple itself. The temple is surrounded by ponds.
From Jaleshwor there is shortcut route to meet the Mahendra Higway at Lalbandi. We followed this route while returning back.
As observed during the tour, the whole circuit area lacks sanitation measure. People were seen in the fields to empty their stomach and children were on the street. There seemed no proper toilets in this area.
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For July 09-14,2010 Sakunda and I were assigned to deliver the office eqipments(sediment samplers) to Illam, Mai project site. I had thought this would be a casual site visit with nothing special except we would meet Nabin and make him crazy with stupid discussion on bizzare topics. But thing changed and the visit was as memoriable as other places.
On day one (or rather night one) we left Kathmandu in Agni Yatayat bus. The was night bus, so we were supposed to sleep on night in the bus. But it didn’t happened. The heart attacking speed of bus was really not comfortable. The time used to become extremely tense whenever there was another bus coming from the opposite direction and our driver was in cool mind to overtake the bus ahead of us. It was miracle of mighty that we reached Biratamod (Mod in Jhapali-Fataha word ;).
15 minutes later after we stepped at Mod, we were hit by rain (heavy rainfall, very heavy one). So we had nothing to do except wait for Mr. Deoraj. After Deoraj arrived we kept the equipments in a safe place and had launch. That day we had nothing to do because road was blocked, so we went to Birtnagar(Kanchanwadi) at Sakunda’s uncle house. We also went to Biratnagar city, romed here and there.
Next day we went back to Birtamod. Catched a jeep and went to deliver the equipments. Nabin welcomed us. After walking for 2-3 hour we reached the site. There was still heavy rainfall in the way. Next day, a program was organized to train the local people for the collection of sediment of river. After training we had nothing to do except torturing Nabin with silly jokes. Sakunda was murderer. Later on the night we watched Fifa football final match.
Next day we had to walk to reach Birtamod. Nabin joined us while returing back. The rain followed here and there in our way. The trekking was really funny and good because of the Victim Nabin.
After trekking for 6hours we reached roadhead at Bhanjyang. From there we catched a jeep (yes we were in roof) and travelled to Birtamod. It took about 2 hours. Fikkal is a beautiful place, lying on the way from Illam to Birtamod. We stayed at Birtamod in a hotel that night. We also arranged a ticket to Kathmandu for the next day’s night bus.
Next day we had 12 hours on spare, so with Deoraj we went to see movie in local theater after launch. The movie was stupid, but we killed our time there. Later on the evening after waving bye bye to Nabin, we took our bus to Kathmandu.
Biratnagar chatpate
On the way to Gunmune
Gunmune bagar, Illam
Soktim tea garden
Chisapani, Illam
Village on the way
Returing from gunmune to Birtamod
Fikkal
Book of Adventure 