Panchthar Districtपाँचथर जिल्ला

Panchthar sits in the hills of Nepal's far east between Ilam and Taplejung, 1,241 km² of ridge-and-valley country mostly in the subtropical (52.6%) and temperate (23.9%) belts. Carved out as a separate district in the 1962 administrative reorganisation, it is run from the hill bazaar of Phidim, the only urban municipality among its eight local levels.

No district expresses Limbuwan — the historical Limbu homeland of the far east — more strongly. Limbus are 43.4% of the population, the Limbu language is the first tongue of 42.3% of residents, and 55.7% of the district follows the Kirat religion, the highest such share among Nepal's districts of this size. One rural municipality is named for Phalgunanda Lingden (1885–1949), the Kirat saint and reformer who preached and died in these hills and whom Nepal declared a national luminary in 2009. Janajati communities together make up about 73% of the district.

The economy is hill farming on the cardamom-and-tea belt of the eastern ridges, and the social statistics are strong for a roadbound hill district — literacy is 82.3% — but Panchthar shares the regional story of decline, its population falling from 191,817 in 2011 to 172,400 in 2021 (−1.02% a year).