Dolakha Districtदोलखा जिल्ला

Dolakha climbs from mid-hill farmland along the Tamakoshi river to the 7,134 m pyramid of Gaurishankar and the glaciated Rolwaling valley on the Tibetan border, where the Tsho Rolpa glacial lake sits high above the valley floor. The district's northern half falls within the Gaurishankar Conservation Area, a 2,179 km² protected area declared in 2010 and managed by the National Trust for Nature Conservation. Closer to the headquarters, the 3,842 m hilltop shrine of Kalinchok Bhagwati — served by a cable car since 2018 — has become one of central Nepal's most popular pilgrimage and snow-tourism spots.

The 2021 census recorded 172,767 people, down 0.74% per year from 2011, with Chhetris (31.2%) and Tamangs (17.6%) the largest communities. The district hosts the project that pushed Nepal toward energy self-sufficiency: the 456 MW Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project, the country's largest power plant, which began generating in July 2021. Jiri, the eastern roadhead long known as the starting point of the classic walking route to Everest before Lukla flights took over, anchors the district's trekking tradition; farming, livestock and remittances sustain most households.

Charikot, the headquarters in Bhimeshwar Municipality, overlooks the old Newar trading town of Dolakha, whose roofless Bhimeshwar (Dolakha Bhimsen) temple — its rough triangular stone idol worshipped as Bhimsen, Shiva and Bhagwati at different times of day — is the district's most celebrated shrine. Dolakha was devastated by the 2015 earthquakes: the magnitude-7.3 aftershock of 12 May 2015 was centred here, compounding the destruction of the April mainshock and leaving the district among the heaviest-hit in the country.