Dailekh दैलेख

Dailekh is a district of wooded mid-hills and ancient pilgrimage, its valleys draining south towards the Bheri and north towards the Karnali. Its defining draw is the Panchakoshi circuit — five sacred sites strung across a single-day loop — where the temples of Shirasthan and Navisthan are built over natural gas vents that have burned for centuries without fuel, giving the whole area the epithet Jwala Tirtha, the flame-pilgrimage. Old trade trails toward Jumla cross the northern ridges, and the forested hills hold reasonable walking throughout the cooler months.

The district is part of the old Baise principality country of western Nepal, and a strong tradition of Khas and Magar hill culture persists in its villages. Dailekh town is accessible by road from Surkhet, making it one of the more reachable districts of the province — a practical staging post if you are heading deeper into Karnali — though it has almost no tourist infrastructure and sees very few foreign visitors.