Visiting the Beatles Ashram in Rishikesh: Is It Worth It?

Back in the 60s, a yoga practitioner by the name of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi set up an ashram on the banks of the Ganges river in Rishikesh. Known at the time as the International Academy of Meditation, this was where he taught students his then-new technique of transcendental meditation (TM).

Initially just one ashram among many in the area, it shot to fame in early 1968 after a number of international celebrities stayed and studied there, including Mia Farrow, Donovan, and most famously, the Beatles and their entourage.

Where the Beatles went, hordes of reporters were sure to follow, and the endless media coverage at the time raised the profile of TM in the Western world. Most of the songs from the White Album were composed there over the three months the Beatles stayed onsite.

The relationship between the Beatles and the maharishi broke down over allegations of his supposed sexual misconduct and cashing in on the musician’s fame, and the ashram was abandoned a few years later. Left to decay for three decades, the site was taken over by the forestry department in 2003.

For years it was a little-known place with far more wildlife than human visitors; the only way to get in there was to climb the fence or bribe a security guard. That all changed in 2015, when a ticket office was set up and it was reopened to the public as the “Beatles Ashram”.

How to Get There

The site sits on the edge of Rajaji National Park, overlooking the Ganges River in the north-eastern part of Rishikesh. If, like most visitors, you’re staying in the Tapovan area or somewhere else on the western side of the Ganges, you’ll need to cross the river to get there.

Walk or take a rickshaw to the start of either Ram Jhula or Janki Bridge: the latter is about 1km from the entrance, while the former is a bit under 2km away and takes you along a busy shopping street first. That’s the one we went for, as we needed to get money out of an ATM on the way.

Either way, you’ll end up on the eastern side of Janki Bridge: look out for a sign saying “The Beatles Street”. Or “Stree”, on the day we were there. From there, just follow this quiet road south along the river, past the Last Chance Cafe that looked aptly named, and over a small creek.

The road turns to dirt/mud at this point, but it’s only another hundred metres or so until you reach the gates of the ashram. There’s not a lot of parking for cars here, but you shouldn’t have a problem finding somewhere to leave a motorbike or bicycle outside.

Ticket Prices and Opening Hours

As with many places in India, there’s a big difference in ticket price depending on whether you’re a local or not. Indian citizens and residents pay 200 rupees for an adult, while foreigners pay 1200 rupees (~$14 USD).

The foreigner ticket used to be 600 rupees, in line with many other attractions in the country, but it doubled in late 2023. I was more than a little sceptical that it would be worth the new price: it’s very expensive by Indian standards, when you consider that it now costs more than global icons like the Taj Mahal with a tiny fraction of the staff, facilities, or maintenance costs.

We saw other tourists turning back at the entrance when they spotted the prices, but decided to persevere. If you’re traveling on a tight budget and need to watch your pennies closely, though, this is probably one attraction that you’ll need to consider skipping.

Weirdly, even when paying the foreigner price, you need to show photo ID for each person at the ticket desk so that the details can be painstakingly noted down. This means the line moves quite slowly, although there were thankfully only a couple of other people ahead of us when we arrived.

In the very smallest of wins, we were at least able to pay with an international card (Mastercard debit) instead of using up all our cash. Don’t lose your ticket: we needed to show it to the nearby ticket inspectors on the way in, but also again as we left.

Speaking of leaving, make sure you give yourself enough time to fully explore the site before it closes. The gates open at 10am, and shut at 4pm in winter (Sep to Feb) and 5pm the rest of the year. Last entry is half an hour before closing time.

How Long to Spend There

The ashram site is deceptively large, and while there isn’t a lot left inside many the ruins, there’s still no shortage of buildings and nature to wander around. We arrived at 11:30am and left a little over two hours later having seen pretty much everything, but you could easily take longer.

If you lingered in more places than we did, or had something to eat or drink in the small cafe onsite, it wouldn’t be hard to spend three or more hours there.

What It’s Like Inside

In its heyday, the ashram was its own little self-contained community, with everything from a post office and meeting hall to a kitchen, library, dining hall, and different kinds of accommodation.

Of course, because it was focused on transcendental meditation, there were plenty of places to practice that as well, most famously the egg-shaped stone buildings that give the ashram its alternative name of Chaurasi Kutia, literally “84 huts” in Hindi.

The remains of those buildings are still there, in lines stretching away from the entrance gates and in various states of disrepair. Almost all of them have been stripped of anything valuable years ago, leaving little but rubble and trash inside, and some have suffered obvious water damage.

You can go inside most of them (obviously at your own risk), but a few have collapsed or are in such a bad state that you’re warned not to enter. Some have signs with a sentence or two of description outside, but that’s about the extent of the information provided.

It’s mildly interesting to explore the empty rooms for a while, and climb up the often-sketchy steps to the roof or second level of some of them, but they’re more interesting as an example of how quickly nature takes over than as any kind of historical artefact.

While the abandoned ashram was closed to the public, some of the few people who made it inside left their mark in the form of graffiti and paintings both inside and outside the buildings. This was formalised when the site reopened, with four artists painting murals on walls throughout the complex.

For many people, including me, this is easily one of the best aspects of the site. Focused largely on the Beatles, the maharishi, and mysticism, the paintings are a real treat, and you’ll find them on or in most of the buildings.

There aren’t much in the way of visitor facilities, just a building towards the middle of the site with toilets, a sad little photo gallery, and a small canteen offering basic hot and cold food and drinks. If you like instant noodles, by all means eat there, otherwise you’ll want to bring your own snacks.

The Best Bits

As I say, it’s a surprisingly large site, and you can easily spend two or three hours there without really trying. If you’ve not in any hurry, just wander up the main path all the way to the back, and then down the other side so that you’ve seen everything there is to see.

If you’re short on time, though, or it’s too hot to stay out in the sun that long, these were the highlights of my visit.

The Beatles Cathedral Gallery

Back in 2012, a few street artists decided to revitalise what was left of the ashram’s main lecture hall, christening it the Beatles Cathedral Gallery and adorning it with paintings of the Fab Four.

This effort was soon stomped on by the forestry department, but when the decision was made to reopen the site to the public a few years later, some of those artists were invited back to do it again, this time in an official capacity.

This was my favourite building, a large, bright space full of colourful paintings of the Beatles, maharishi, and others, along with song titles and other quotes. It’s popular with other visitors, of course, but even so we didn’t have to wait long to have the place to ourselves for a few minutes, with just the sounds of the nearby jungle for company.

Top of the Pyramid Buildings

Easily spotted from anywhere on the site, two tall pyramid-shaped buildings stand alongside each other. These each housed a few dozen rooms for students and workers at the ashram: again, there’s little left inside any of them, but it’s worth climbing the stairs to each level and taking a look around some of them.

Of more interest, at least to me, is the pair of “eggs” on the roof of each of the buildings. Like the standalone stone rooms that I talk about below, these were used as a meditation space; they’ve now been repurposed as a canvas for murals and graffiti.

This is where you’ll get the best views, looking out over the river in one direction and the ashram buildings and trees in the other three. If you feel like today isn’t going to be the day that the rusty ladders collapse entirely, you can use them to climb up on top of the eggs for the most spectacular view of all.

Meeting Hall

As you’re wandering around the site, make sure you head over towards the buildings on the western edge. They sit above a 150-foot cliff overlooking the Ganges, and if you head inside what used to be a meeting room, you’ll get views of the river through the empty windows.

The raised platform below the painted “Let It Be” sign is a good place to sit and pose for a photo, and with trees towering above the open roof and other vegetation growing up the walls and in cracks in the floor, it’s just a lovely, nature-filled spot to hang out for a few minutes.

Stone Meditation Eggs

The most unusual part of the site sits towards the front, on your right as you’re heading away from the ticket office. These are the 84 meditation huts that give the ashram its alternative name, made with stones from the Ganges river below.

They’re individually numbered, with narrow paths snaking between the buildings. While they generally look pretty similar, spend a bit of time examining them and you’ll soon see they aren’t exactly the same size or shape.

You can go inside pretty much all of them, and although the internal steps have collapsed in several of them, it’s not hard to find some that are intact and let you get up to the top section of the building so you can have a brief meditation of your own. Or, at least, a photo that makes it look that way.

Final Thoughts

So, after spending a few hours at the Beatles ashram, how would I rate it? Well, I’m a bit conflicted.

There have been all sorts of promises over the years about how the site was going to be developed, from bird-watching tours and nature walks to a museum and even overnight accommodation, but so far, none of it has eventuated.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and the encroaching jungle and general decay of the site is very much part of its charm. That said, I’d love to see money from those expensive tickets going towards restoring a few of buildings to what they would have been like when the Beatles were staying.

It’s hard to visualise what the interiors of the bungalows or meditation rooms would have looked like when all that’s left is rubble and the sound of dripping water, and with no photos or video of the buildings, and little in the way of written description, it’s mostly just left to the imagination.

Similarly, if it wasn’t for the murals painted on the walls in the last few years and the half-dozen grainy photos in the gallery, I’d have had no idea that the Beatles even stepped foot inside the place.

For me it was interesting enough as an abandoned ashram that the lack of Beatles-specific information wasn’t a major letdown, but if you’re a huge fan of the band and are hoping to find a good slice of their history there, you’re probably going to end up disappointed.

Despite the blatant cash grab and near-total lack of maintenance or effort put into it, I’d still recommend a visit while in you’re in Rishikesh if you’re not on a tight budget. Just go in with the right set of expectations!