Dhorpatan is a village in Baglung District

Baglung District

Baglung District, of 268,938.Baglung is surrounded by Parvat, Myagdi, Rukum, Ropla, Pyuthan and Gulmi districts. It looks like Nepal in shape. It has 59 Village Development Committees and one Municipality. It has many rivers and streams and so, many suspension bridges. Baglung is also known as the...

 of Nepal

Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked sovereign state located in South Asia. It is located in the Himalayas and bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by the Republic of India...

, nestled in a large east-west valley south of the Dhaulagiri

Dhaulagiri

Dhaulagiri is Earth's seventh highest mountain at ; one of fourteen over eight thousand metres. Dhaulagiri was first climbed May 13, 1960 by a Swiss/Austrian expedition....

 Himalaya. It is the headquarters of Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve

Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve

The Dhorpatan Hunting Reserve is the only hunting reserve in Nepal. Established in 1987 it covers an area of in the Dhaulagiri Himal of western Nepal in the Rukum, Myagdi and Baglung Districts. In altitude it ranges from .-External links:*...

. There is a small community of indigenous Kham Magar

Kham Magar

Kham Magar and Northern Magar are descriptive terms invented by academic linguists and anthropologists for a nationality in the Middle Hills of mid-western Nepal inhabiting highlands extending through eastern Rukum and northern Salyan, Rolpa and Pyuthan Districts in Rapti Zone as well as adjacent...

 as well as Tibet

Tibet

Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...

an refugee

Refugee

A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...

s.

The enclosing valley is drained to the west by the Uttar Ganga, tributary to the Bheri River which in turn joins the Karnali. The east-west orientation of Dhorpatan Valley offers a notably -- by Himalayan standards -- easy route between the Karnali basin of western Nepal and the Gandaki basin in the center, over a relatively low pass on the watershed about a day's walk east of the town. This was an historic route for Khas

Khas

Originally the Khas / Khasas or Khasiyas are the mountain dwellers living in the southern shadow of the Himalayan range from Kashmir to Bhutan, but mostly in Nepal, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, North Bengal, Sikkim and Bhutan,...

 migration eastward in the late Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

. Ensuing political evolution led to the unification of the Kingdom of Nepal from loose confederations in the Karnali

Baisi Rajya

Baise Rajya -- "22 principalities" -- is a former group of petty kingdoms centered in the Karnali-Bheri river basin of Nepal. The Baise were sovereign but intermittently allied among themselves until annexed during the unification of modern Nepal during 1744-1810...

 and Gandaki

Chaubisi rajya

Chaubisi rajya -- literally "24 principalities" -- were sovereign and intermittently allied petty kingdoms in the Gandaki River Basin, a major Himalayan tributary of the Ganges....

 regions and from other confederations further east.

A seasonal STOL

STOL

STOL is an acronym for short take-off and landing, a term used to describe aircraft with very short runway requirements.-Definitions:There is no one accepted definition of STOL and many different definitions have been used by different authorities and nations at various times and for a myriad of...

 airstrip serves the region. Dhorpatan can be reached from Baglung

Baglung

Baglung, is a town in western Nepal, 275 km west of Kathmandu. It is the administrative headquarters of Baglung District and Dhawalagiri Zone. Baglung is a major business, financial, educational, and healthcare center for the people of Kali Gandaki valley....

 via Burtibang or from Beni via Myagdi Khola. Dolpa is a few days trek to the north around the western Dhaulagiri range. During the summer months large herds of livestock are brought north from Rapti Zone

Rapti Zone

Rapti Anchal in the Mid-Western Development Region of Nepal. It is named after the West Rapti River which drains Rolpa, Pyuthan and part of Dang district. The remainder of Dang and part of Salyan are drained by the Babai. The remainder of Salyan and all of Rukum are drained by the Bheri.The...

 by Kham Magar

Kham Magar

Kham Magar and Northern Magar are descriptive terms invented by academic linguists and anthropologists for a nationality in the Middle Hills of mid-western Nepal inhabiting highlands extending through eastern Rukum and northern Salyan, Rolpa and Pyuthan Districts in Rapti Zone as well as adjacent...

to graze in surrounding pastureland. Animal husbandry, handicrafts and some tourism are the key economic activities of the people in the region.