Dailekh District

It is said that the name Dailekh is derived from Dadhi Lekh. Dadhi stands for Dadhichi. Dadhichi was a sage in ancient time and Lekh mean hill. Etymologically ‘Dadhi Lekh’ means the hill where sage Dadhichi meditated.^[4][5] There is also another story about name that, in ancient time it was a place of Devatas, so it called "Daibalok" which later became 'Dailekh'.^[4][5]

Dailekh District was a part of Khasa kingdom during 12th to 14th century.^[6] Sinja Valley was the ancient capital city and powerful town of the Khasa Kingdom^{[7]: 76 [8]} After the fall down of the Khasa Kingdom it divided into many small kingdoms. Before the unification of modern Nepal, the area of the Karnali region had a united kingdom named Baise Rajya (Twenty two principalities). Dailekh principality was one in twenty two principalities.

Dailekh is a high, hilly district out of ten districts of Karnali Province. It is situated at coordinates of 28° 35' 00" N to 29° 08' 00" N Latitudes and 81° 25' 00" E to 81° 53' 00" E of Longitudes. The lowest elevation is 544m and the highest elevation is 4,168m. The headquarter is situated at an elevation of 1448m. The district has covered 80% of mid-hill land and 21% of high-hill land. The total area of the district is 1,505 square kilometres (581 mi²).^[5]

On the basis of altitude,this district can be classified into 4 different sub-categories:

Dailekh is connected with Birendranagar (the capital city of Karnali Province) with a road called Dailekh road (F-48). Dailekh road meets to Ratna Highway (NH-12) at Birendranagar (Surkhet). Ratna Highway is connected with Mahendra Highway (NH-1) at Kohalpur. Through Mahendra Highway one can get access to Kathmandu, Pokhara and other cities of Nepal.

There is another road connecting Dailekh to Karnali Highway (NH-13) via Dullu.

The national capital Kathmandu is at distance of 647.41 kilometres (402.28 mi) from Dailekh.

The nearest airport for Dailekh is Surkhet Airport which is about 70 kilometres (43 mi) at distance from Dailekh.

At the time of the 2021 Nepal census, Dailekh District had a population of 252,313. 10.62% of the population is under 5 years of age. It has a literacy rate of 75.50% and a sex ratio of 1089 females per 1000 males. 122,905 (48.71%) lived in municipalities.^[11]

Khas people make up a majority of the population with 88% of the population, while Khas Dalits make up 28% of the population. Hill Janjatis make up 11% of the population, of which Magars are 9% of the population.^[12]

At the time of the 2021 census, 95.90% of the population spoke Nepali and 2.96% Magar Dhut as their first language.^[13] In 2011, 97.9% of the population spoke Nepali as their first language.^[14]

Dailekh comprises 2 parliamentary seats and 4 provincial seats:

As per the new constitution of Nepal 2015, the district is divided into 4 urban municipalities and 7 rural municipality;

• 
  An entrance gate to Dailekh District in Ranimatta Mid-western Nepal
• 
  Aerial view of Dailekh District (Mid Western Nepal) on the way to Surkhet from Humla
• 
  Aerial view of Dailekh District (Mid Western Nepal) on the way to Surkhet from Humla
• 
  River Karnali, an aerial view of Dailekh District (Mid Western Nepal) on the way to Surkhet from Humla

• Zones of Nepal
• "Districts of Nepal". Statoids.