Khotang Districtखोटाङ जिल्ला

Khotang is a rugged 1,591 km² hill district in the heart of eastern Nepal, its terrain climbing from about 152 m to 3,620 m. Roughly 56% of the district is forested and 42% cultivated, and its ridge-top headquarters Diktel (in Diktel Rupakot Majhuwagadhi Municipality) long ranked among the hardest district capitals in the east to reach by road. Ten local levels — two municipalities and eight rural municipalities — make up the district.

Khotang's great landmark is Halesi, a natural cave complex revered by three faiths at once: Hindus worship it as Halesi Mahadev, the 'Pashupatinath of the East', where Shiva is said to have hidden from the demon Bhasmasur; Tibetan Buddhists know it as Maratika, the cave where Padmasambhava and Mandarava attained long-life realisation; and the Kirat Rai honour it as an ancestral site of their oral scripture, the mundhum. Pilgrimage fairs at Shivaratri, Bala Chaturdashi and Ram Navami draw visitors from across Nepal and beyond to Halesi Tuwachung Municipality, which takes its name from the shrine.

This is the most strongly Rai district in Nepal's east — Rai people are 41% of the population, and one rural municipality is named Sakela after the community's principal festival — yet it is also the province's fastest-emptying: the census count fell from 206,312 in 2011 to 175,298 in 2021, an annual decline of 1.56%, the steepest of Koshi's fourteen districts.