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]
History
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 of twenty-two principalities.
Geography and climate
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 (581mi2).[5]
On the basis of altitude,this district can be classified into 4 different sub-categories:
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]
Castes/ethnic groups in Dailekh district (2021)[12]
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]
