Madhesh

Janakpur, city of Sita and Mithila tradition

The capital, Janakpur, occupies a singular place in Hindu mythology as the birthplace of Sita and the kingdom of King Janaka, where the Ramayana places the wedding of Rama and Sita at the Dhanushadham shrine. The Janaki Mandir that marks her birthplace is a confection of Mughal and Rajput architecture draped in marble and lit at dusk with a thousand lamps, drawing pilgrims from across South Asia. The city's ponds, said to number over a hundred, give the landscape an almost Venetian quality in the monsoon months, and the Maithili women painting intricate Mithila art on the walls of freshly plastered homes have turned a domestic tradition into one of Nepal's most recognisable visual exports.

A living culture of language, festival, and folk art

Madhesh is linguistically one of the richest provinces in Nepal, with Maithili, Bhojpuri, and Bajjika each commanding enough speakers to constitute a literary tradition in their own right. The Chhath Puja festival, which draws worshippers to river banks and ponds at dawn and dusk for four days in late October or early November, is observed with an intensity here that rivals anywhere in the world, and the Jat Jatin dance performed in village courtyards through the monsoon months follows folk songs that have been passed between generations for centuries. Maithil cuisine operates on different principles from hill Nepali cooking: mustard oil, green vegetables, and fish feature prominently, and the deep-fried wheat dumplings called bagiya are a taste that lingers.

Trade, wildlife, and the open border with India

Birgunj, the province's largest city and Nepal's main land port, handles the majority of the country's trade with India across a border that both nations' citizens can cross freely. The pace there is commercial and purposeful, a contrast to the temple quiet of Janakpur two hours east. Parsa National Park, on the western edge of the province, shelters tigers, gharials, and a population of greater one-horned rhinoceros in sal and riverine forest that connects to Chitwan across the provincial boundary. And at the Gadhimai temple in Bara District, one of the world's largest Hindu festivals draws millions of devotees every five years, a gathering whose scale has few parallels anywhere on earth.