Pilgrims to Pathibhara Temple surge

By Chandra Pandak,Taplejung, May 9: Pathibhara Temple, a famous pilgrimage site in Taplejung district, is being thronged by a crowd of pilgrims.

With the arrival of thousands of pilgrims every day, the site is getting more and more crowded. According to the Pathibhara Area Development Committee, the number of arriving pilgrims started swelling since April 28.

According to Manmani Kafle, executive director of the Committee, 3,577 devotees – the highest number so far in the month of Baishak – visited Pathibhara on Saturday alone, up from 2,045 last Friday and 4,131 on Tuesday last week.

Earlier, 5,708 devotees had visited Pathibhara on April 7, 2023, he informed.

He said the arrival of pilgrims had temporarily ebbed when the Venus became invisible from the Earth.

According to the committee, with the re-emergence of the Venus, the arrival of pilgrims suddenly increased, leading Pathibhara being crowded again.

Given the pressure of the devotees, the committee said, the staff in the Pathibhara area are continuously being deployed to facilitate the pilgrims offer their worships.

While pilgrims come from all over the country, most flock from the districts in Koshi province. 

Rajendra Mahat, an employee of Pathibhara Area Development Committee, informed that a significant number of pilgrims are coming from outside the country, including Sikkim and Darjeeling of India.

He said a large number of pilgrims have visited Pathibhara on Sunday as well. With the swelling numbers, the hotels in Pathibhara area, including in Phungling Bazaar, have been fully occupied. Dinesh Khabas, District President of the Hoteliers Association, informed that the hotels of Kaflepati, Mathlo Phedi and even Phungling Bazaar are packed with pilgrims.

According to Khabas, the hotels in Mathlo Fedhi are struggling to bear the pressure of growing number of pilgrims.

Similarly, local transport businessmen have said that they are also struggling to provide transport facilities to the pilgrims.

Bhishan Limbu, a transport businessman, said there is a problem in providing transport facilities (vehicles) as the number of visitors has surged.

Limbu added that due to the rush of pilgrims, the transportation services had to be operated from 4 am to 8 pm and that the same vehicle had to operate four-five trips a day.

Most of the vehicles brought by the pilgrims themselves reach only the district headquarters of Taplejung, Phungling Bazar, and Suketar area.

Local vehicles have to be used as the road from Suketar is hard to travel through.

Transport is being operated from Phungling Bazaar to Kaflepati in Pathibhara area, from where the devotees have to walk to Pathibhara Dham, which is 3,794 metres above sea level.

Although the road is easy to walk on, there is also a porter facility for the pilgrims who find it difficult to walk because of the uphill path.

There are hundreds of porters who charge a fee according to the weight of devotees for carrying them to the Dham located on the top of a mountain.