Fourteen minutes above Rajgir
On the old single-seat ropeway to the Shanti Stupa, and the view that explains why the Buddha stayed.
There are two ropeways up Ratnagiri now — a modern eight-seat cabin and the 1969 original, a chain of single chairs that leave every few seconds with a clank and swing out over the trees. Take the old one. There's no bar across your lap, just a hook, and for fourteen minutes the valley opens beneath your feet.
Rajgir sits in a bowl of five hills — Vaibhara, Vipula, Ratna, Chhatha, Sona — and from the chair you can see the shape of it: the ancient wall running along the ridgelines, the hot springs steaming at the foot of Vaibhara, the new town spilling out of the gap. This was Rajagriha, capital of Magadha, where Bimbisara ruled and the Buddha spent his rainy seasons.
At the top, the Vishwa Shanti Stupa is white and quiet. Walk round it clockwise, then take the path east to Gridhakuta, the Vulture's Peak — a rock shelf where the Buddha is said to have preached the Lotus Sutra. It's a fifteen-minute scramble; most people don't bother, which is the point.
Come down by the same chairs. Bathe at Brahmakund if you can bear the crowds, or just sit on the steps and watch everyone else. Nalanda is twelve kilometres north — do it tomorrow morning, at opening, before the heat.
