Makwanpur Districtमकवानपुर जिल्ला

Makwanpur stretches across the Mahabharat and Churia ranges south of the Kathmandu Valley, from temperate ridge country above 2,000 m down to tropical dun valleys below 300 m. Its headquarters Hetauda sits where the historic Tribhuvan Highway — Nepal's first road link between Kathmandu and the Tarai — meets the East–West Highway, and in January 2020 the provincial assembly voted 105 to 3 to make Hetauda the permanent capital of Bagmati Province. Higher up the Tribhuvan Highway, the viewpoint of Daman at about 2,300 m offers one of the widest Himalayan panoramas in Nepal, and the Kulekhani reservoir (Indra Sarowar) feeds the country's only seasonal-storage hydropower plants.

The 2021 census counted 466,073 people, growing 0.99% per year. Makwanpur is Nepal's most strongly Tamang district — Tamangs are 46.8% of the population and the Tamang language is the most spoken mother tongue — with significant Chepang communities in the rugged Raksirang and Manahari hills. Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan City is one of the country's established industrial centres, with an industrial district, cement plants drawing on Churia limestone, and forestry-based industry, while the rural economy rests on maize, mustard, vegetables and goats.

The district takes its name from Makwanpur Gadhi, the hilltop fort-palace of the Sen kings whose kingdom once controlled much of the central Tarai; Prithvi Narayan Shah married into the Sen royal house before conquering the fort in 1762 on his way to the Kathmandu Valley. Under the Ranas the district was administered as Chisapani District from the strategic Chisapani Gadhi fort above Bhimphedi — the old caravan gateway to Kathmandu before motor roads — and the headquarters moved to fast-growing Hetauda in 1982.