Visiting Places
Madhesh
Gadhimai Temple
A Terai goddess temple at Bariyarpur, home to one of South Asia's largest fairs.
MadheshMadhesh Province
Gadhimai is a temple to the goddess Gadhimai at Bariyarpur in Bara district, deep in the Madhesh Terai near the Indian border. Every five years it hosts one of South Asia's largest religious fairs, drawing huge crowds of pilgrims from Nepal and India. Between festivals it is a quiet country shrine in the sugarcane plains.
Known for
- Bariyarpur temple of the goddess Gadhimai
- great Terai fair
At a glance
- Region
- Madhesh
- Province
- Madhesh
- Getting there
- In Bara district near Birgunj; reached by road from Birgunj or Kalaiya in the central Terai.
- Best time
- October–March to avoid Terai heat; the great fair recurs roughly every five years.
Things to see & do
- The Gadhimai shrine and its sacred pond in the Bara Terai
- The vast five-yearly Gadhimai Mela, when pilgrims pour in from across the border
- Flat Madhesh farmland and Tharu and Madhesi village life around the temple