Bajhang Districtबझाङ जिल्ला

Bajhang is the largest district of Sudurpashchim Province at 3,422 km², rising from the Seti river valley around 900 m to the snows of Saipal Himal (7,031 m), the second-highest peak of Nepal's far west after Api. The Seti — the great western tributary of the Karnali — gathers its headwaters here, and the district spans every climate belt from subtropical valley floor to nival high mountain. Its southwestern corner falls within Khaptad National Park, whose grasslands and the ashram of the late Khaptad Baba draw pilgrims each summer. The headquarters Chainpur sits on the Seti in Jayaprithvi Municipality; with two municipalities and ten rural municipalities, Bajhang has more local levels (twelve) than any other district in the province.

The 2021 census counted 189,085 people at a sparse 55 per km², down from 195,159 in 2011. Bajhang is one of Nepal's most homogeneous districts: Chhetris make up 69% of the population and Hinduism is near-universal, while the local tongue Bajhangi (37.6%) is spoken nearly as widely as Nepali (38.2%), with Doteli (22.8%) third. Literacy, at 70.5%, is the lowest in the province, and the sex ratio of 87.93 men per 100 women marks the same India-bound male migration economy as its neighbours; farming, livestock and seasonal remittances sustain most households.

Before unification Bajhang was one of the Baisi principalities, and its Singh rajas retained unusual local autonomy well into the modern era. The district's most famous son is Jaya Prithvi Bahadur Singh (1877–1940), the raja of Bajhang remembered as a humanitarian, writer and pioneer of Nepali-language primary education — the headquarters municipality carries his name. Remote Saipal Rural Municipality in the district's north, around the mountain's base camps, remains one of the least accessible corners of Nepal.