Dhading Districtधादिङ जिल्ला

Dhading lies directly west of the Kathmandu Valley and runs an unusually complete north–south sweep of Nepal's terrain: from the glaciated Ganesh Himal on the Tibetan border — the district's highest point is Pabil (Ganesh IV) at 7,104 m — down through deep mid-hill valleys to the low Chure foothills in the south. The Prithvi Highway, the main artery between Kathmandu and Pokhara, crosses the district's southern belt along the Trishuli river corridor, putting roadside bazaars like Gajuri, Malekhu and Galchhi within easy reach of the capital, while the northern valleys of Rubi Valley and Khaniyabas remain among the province's most remote.

The 2021 census counted 325,710 people, down from 336,067 in 2011 — a decline of 0.30% per year that reflects steady out-migration toward Kathmandu and abroad. The district name is traced to the Chepang words for deity ("dha") and flame ("ding"), a reference to the Jwalamukhi Devi temple; Dhading's southern ridges form part of the homeland of the Chepang, one of Nepal's most marginalised indigenous groups. The economy is overwhelmingly agricultural — terraced grain, vegetable and livestock farming — with most land under cultivation and trade concentrated along the highway.

Dhading Besi, the headquarters in Nilkantha Municipality, sits in a low valley about 18 km north of the Prithvi Highway. Historically the district lay on Prithvi Narayan Shah's path between Gorkha and the Kathmandu Valley and figures in accounts of the unification campaign. Dhading was among the districts hardest hit by the April 2015 earthquake, whose epicentre lay just west in Gorkha; its 13 local levels — two municipalities and eleven rural municipalities, the most of any Bagmati district alongside Kavrepalanchok — spent years in reconstruction.