Q 01/05

Which Tibetan peak, never successfully climbed, is Shiva's abode to Hindus and sacred to Buddhists, Jains and Bon?

A) Mount Kailash

B) Mount Everest

C) Nanda Devi

D) Kangchenjunga

Answer · why

A) Mount Kailash

Mount Kailash has no recorded successful ascent, and the Chinese government bans climbing it because of its religious significance; pilgrims circle th...

Q 02/05

Which pilgrimage rotates among four cities where drops of the gods' nectar of immortality are said to have fallen?

A) Char Dham

B) Kumbh Mela

C) Pushkar Fair

D) Ganga Sagar Mela

Answer · why

B) Kumbh Mela

The Kumbh Mela is held at Prayagraj, Haridwar, Nashik and Ujjain on a cycle tied to Jupiter's orbit, and the 2025 gathering at Prayagraj drew about 66...

Q 03/05

What did Queen Maya dream entered her right side on the night she conceived the future Buddha, Siddhartha?

A) A golden peacock

B) A white elephant

C) A seven-headed naga

D) A radiant lotus bud

Answer · why

B) A white elephant

A white elephant holding a lotus circled Queen Maya three times and entered her womb through her right side; the Buddha-to-be had chosen that form in ...

Q 04/05

What did the Buddha tell the grieving mother Kisa Gotami to fetch from a house where no one had ever died?

A) Three grains of rice

B) Mustard seeds

C) A cup of well water

D) A sesame-seed cake

Answer · why

B) Mustard seeds

Mustard seeds were the price of reviving her child, and Kisa Gotami went door to door before realising no family is free of death; she later became a ...

Q 05/05

What did the infant Hanuman leap up to eat, mistaking it for a ripe fruit, until a thunderbolt broke his jaw?

A) The moon

B) Venus

C) The sun

D) Jupiter

Answer · why

C) The sun

The sun looked like a ripe fruit to the hungry child; the disfigured jaw (hanu) the thunderbolt left him is one explanation of the name Hanuman.