RISHIKESH
The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi ashram where the Beatles wrote most of the White Album in 1968 — abandoned meditation huts are now covered in street art. Foreigner pricing is steep (6x Indian rate) and inconsistently enforced at the gate, so confirm before paying. Keep your entry ticket; it must be surrendered on exit.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi leased this forest land from the Uttar Pradesh state forestry department in 1961 and built the ashram in 1963 with a $100,000 donation from American heiress Doris Duke, naming it the International Academy of Meditation; locally it was known as Chaurasi Kutia ('84 huts'). It gained worldwide fame in February-April 1968 when the Beatles stayed to study Transcendental Meditation alongside Donovan, Mia Farrow and Mike Love, during which the band wrote most of the songs that became the White Album. Abandoned for decades afterward, the site sat inside Rajaji National Park forest land until it was reopened to the public in 2015 as the Beatles Ashram, now covered in fan murals.
