Parasnath hill - elevation ... 1365 meter (Photography from another top point)
Parasnath is located towards the eastern end of the Chota Nagpur Plateau in the Giridih district of the Indian state of Jharkhand. The hill is named after Lord Parshvanatha, the 23rd Tirthankara. At 1,365 m Parasnath is the highest hill top, and is theoretically intervisible (by direct line of sight on a perfectly clear day) with Mount Everest over 450 km to the north.
One has to cover around 27 Km with total of 12,000 steps in a day which includes 9 km climbing on the hill , 9 km area over hill having so many jain temples and 9 km back. There are many jain temples and accommodation places at the hill-foot also. Around 7 km is the Palganj having a old jain temple with 4 centrury old Statue.
Out of 24 Tirthankara (Jain god) 22 got moksha (enlightenment) from here. Temple of Chandraprabhu bhagwan (god) and Parswanath bhagwan (god) at the top of two different hills. From Parasnath hill we can see the view of long valley. Some time weather changing so fast specially in evening hour.
Location of Parasnath hill (source: Google Map)
The Day before the starting of the Tracking (28/12/2020): We were almost 7 persons planning to come from two different route by two different car. My self was in Gomoh, Dhanbad and plan to pick up two more friend who came from Ranchi by train (Ranchi - Hatia Super Express). They arrived on time almost on 10:00 am. after that we started our journey from Gomoh to Giridih by roadway. Because we planned to visit some tourist places of Giridih too. Another side Our 4 friends came from Asansol (West Bengal) directly to Giridih (located in Jharkhand). We seen there Usri waterfall and Khandoli hill. after doing our dinner in Giridih we arrived in hotel located in the base of Parasnath hill.
It is recommended that we should to always start our tracking early in the morning, because it will take almost whole day to track. The trek is approximately 27 km by foot, it takes about 4.5 hours to climb 2 hours for vandana and 4.5 hours to come down to the foot hill. It was my second time tracking, Before this, I tracked it earlier first time in 2006 of March month.
Tracking route on Parasnath hill
Tracking Day (29/12/2020): We awaken all early in the morning around 3:30 am. We started our journey around 5:30 am. We took small cup of tea and biscuits in a tea shop which was located just below the base of the hill. Now environment was so cool and chill weather, clearly picture of top hill of Parasnath we able to see; it was attracting us to climb up fastly. Our tour expert Mr. Bijay Kumar Thakur (PGT in Hindi literature) was so exited to lead us. We keep single bottle of water for drinking and some snakes too.
We were start to track on tracking route
After almost 2 km walking we arrived at 24 Trithnkar Temple which was till today temple were building and occurring renovating works. We reached Gandharv Nala after climbing up almost 4 km distance. Pathway was well decorated with concrete pavements, so we walked very easily. But, we seen that on some places pathways were broken. Jungle was well protected with dense Sal and other deciduous trees and plants. We seen many deep Jungle (dense) tree species too.
I am sitting over a circular stem of a tree A hill eye view of this Parasnath jungle
After walking almost two hours we took a rest on the side bar of the pavements and drank water. We put a piece of chew gum for keep busy our mouth while walking. After walking 6 km distance from starting point we reached Sheetal Nala. I saw a little difference from my earlier tracking, that State Govt. built up a small company of defense between 24 Trithnkar Temple and Gandharv Nala; and we saw that almost 4 Bigha forest has been cleared for settling down the battalion camp. Time was almost 8:30 am, we were started to feel warm under our garments, so we decided to remove our jackets and tighten the jacket on the back side. After taking some 15 minute rest we started to walk again. Now stairs began to smaller and degree of slope started to increase, because now pathway became more sloppy due to side wall of the hill. After walking of few more hours on about 11 am we successfully arrived at the hill top.
Small huts besides the pathway which operate in the peak season of tourists
A shop beside pathway
Happiness after arriving tophill
A khatola (hanging van) for physically challenged persons
A marble rock carried by eight people (by local native Santhal tribe)
Again here we sat for a few minutes and drank water. Our group leader decided to stay there but we remaining four musketeers decided to visit Jal Mahal (Water temple) which was just few hundred steps downward toward the southern hill slope. During going down with stairs we saw that almost 8 people were tried to carry a marble stone (having weight of many hundred kilos) for decoration purpose in Jal Mahal. We spend almost half hour, from here we can easily see NH 2 as well as Damodar river and Bokaro Steel Ltd.. We returned top hill on 12:30 pm.
A view of Jalmahal Temple Campus
We drank sugarcane juice from a sugarcane crusher man, early in the morning we saw this man who was carrying many sugarcane sticks on her shoulders, we were surprised to see that this man arrived 2 hours earlier than us. Actually these people belongs to foothill villages who come daily for opening sugarcane shop for tourists. Beside this Sugarcane juice shop a little girls with her father was selling some snacks. We purchased some hot Pakoras and Beguni chop and ate nicely with enjoying beautiful sceneries around us.
Top hill view with pathways
After taking some rest we moved for a hill top location from where we could see the entire 360 degree view, therefore after many hours tracking our all kind of tiredness were vanished. We made many spectacular photos and videos here.
Different Trithankar's Tonks located on the different hill tops
Helipad located on the another hill top
Spectacular view of the highest point that is Parasnath hill and Temple
After spending few half an hour we moved for the main attraction of the hill that was Parasnath hill or temple that was also visible in the above photo. A beautiful location surrounded by deciduous jungle of Chotanagpur plateau, Jharkhand. The elevation shows our upper limit of the atmosphere. Again we started to walk downward, we saw many types of flowers and bushes which grown on the high land. Finally, we arrived at near Parasnath hill and temple where stairs were start with beautiful marble decorated. According to Temple rules we opened our shoes and shocks and went for top of the hill where temple was located. We spend here almost one hour, we seen every aspect of natural beauty surrounded to the hill.
Beautiful temple of Parasnath located on the highest elevation of Parasnath hill
We took many photos and done many videography around the beautiful location. We can see the dense forest located around Parasnath hill. We can also able to see the atmospheric layer after which a clear cut blue open sky was visible. After spending few more hours around 2:15 pm we started to move down from the hill, for this we choose another tracking route. We remained very few hours to going down, we walked very quickly. During meantime we also took some snacks. after continuous walking of 3 hours we successfully arrived near the foothill at 7 pm, where our one day tracking has been completed. After taking rest for one more hour we started to go return our living place.
All tired birds were coming down to the foot hills
Some New Development for tourists or pilgrimage: Now Govt. decided to provide some more facilities for tourists or pilgrimage, for instance water connectivity, street lights, security guards and bike riding (it is operating privately with the help of locals). For bike riders there is separate route, but it is going up to 6 km distance. after bike's end point people have to walk. Forest are main beauty of this hill but with the increasing activity of locals and other people it is great concern to save. All time is best season to track on this route, one should to avoid rainy season only.
Very beautiful view from top hill of Parasnath
Thanks for experiencing the entire tracking.
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