Festivals & Events
Each year tens of thousands climb to the sacred 4,380m lake of Gosaikunda for the full-moon festival of Janai Purnima. In 2026 it lands on Friday…
By Maya Rai · Jun 15, 2026
While most of Nepal sits under monsoon cloud in late August, one high mountain lake comes alive. Gosaikunda, a sacred glacial lake at 4,380 metres north of Kathmandu, draws tens of thousands of Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims each year for Janai Purnima — the…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Janai Purnima, also called Raksha Bandhan, marks the day when Hindu men of the Brahmin and Chhetri communities ritually change the janai — the sacred thread worn across the body — after a purifying bath. At Gosaikunda, the act takes on epic scale: pilgrims…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
The beauty of Gosaikunda is that the pilgrimage is also a superb trek, and it sits in a part of the Langtang region that handles the monsoon better than most. The classic route climbs from Dhunche or Sundarijal through rhododendron and oak forest to Sing…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
This is a high-altitude trek done in the rainy season, and both facts deserve respect. The climb to 4,380m is rapid by pilgrimage standards, and altitude sickness is a real risk for the unacclimatised — pace matters more than the calendar. The lower forest…
Travel Himalaya Nepal · News
Plan your trek
NMA-certified guides · permits sorted · 5,000+ treks since 1998.
$1010 pp
Free guide
Permits, costs, seasons and routes — the essentials we send every traveller, plus a free, no-obligation trip quote.
↑ Swipe up
Read the full report and grab the free Nepal Trek Insider Guide — or ask our Pokhara team for a tailored, no-obligation quote.
Read more & get the free guide Plan my trip — free quote Browse Gosaikunda Lake Trek — 9 Days