Kimathanka is a village (previously, a village development committee) in Bhotkhola rural municipality of Sankhuwasabha District of

Koshi Province Koshi Province () is an autonomous Provinces of Nepal, province of Nepal adopted by the Constitution of Nepal on 20 September 2015. It covers an area of , about 17.5% of the country's total area. With the industrial city of Biratnagar as its cap ...

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

and serves as the Nepalese counterpart of the Nepal-China (

Tibet autonomous region The Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), often shortened to Tibet in English or Xizang in Pinyin, Hanyu Pinyin, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China. It was established in 1965 to replace the ...

) border at Zhentang (Chentang). At the time of the

1991 census It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union collapsed, leaving fifteen sovereign republics and the CIS in its place. In July 1991, India abandoned its policies of dirigism, license r ...

, it had a population of 303 people living in 50 individual households. Being among the most remote Himalayan villages of Nepal, Kimathanka is also the end point of the in-progress 362 kilometers long

Biratnagar Biratnagar () is a List of cities in Nepal, metropolitan city in Nepal, which serves as the capital of Koshi Province. With a Metropolitan Urban Agglomeration population of 244,750 as per the 2021 Nepal census, 2021 census, it is the largest c ...

Khandbari Khandbari is the district headquarters of Sankhuwasabha District in Koshi Province of north-eastern Nepal. Demographics At the time of the 2011 Nepal census, Khandbari Municipality had a population of 31,534. Of these, 68.7% spoke Nepali lang ...

-Kimathanka road called

Koshi Highway Koshi Highway or NH08 (previously: H08) () is a 390 km long highway located in Koshi Province. It is a north-south highway which is understood to be the shortest highway connecting India to China across the Himalayan mountains in Nepal. Ran ...

, which plans to connect the village with the provincial headquarter of

and subsequently, with the Indian border town of

Jogbani Jogbani is a municipal council area, in Araria District of Bihar state, India. It lies on the Indo-Nepal border with Morang District, Koshi Zone and is a gateway to Biratnagar city. There is a customs checkpoint for goods at the border. ...

. The Arun River runs through the valley below the village. In 2019, road embankment construction on the Chinese side led to fear of potential downstream flooding in Kimathanka. In November 2020,

Prime Minister of Nepal The prime minister of Nepal (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of government of Nepal. The prime minister leads the Council of Ministers of Nepal, Council of Ministers and holds the chief executive authority in the country. They must maintain ...

KP Sharma Oli Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli (; born 22 February 1952), commonly known as K. P. Sharma Oli or simply K. P. Oli (English pronunciation: , ), is a Nepalese politician who is serving as the prime minister of Nepal since 15 July 2024. Chairman of the ...

visited Kimathanka inspecting the progress of Koshi Highway and other infrastructure projects in the area.

Border

Kimathanka is near the border with

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

. The border was part of brief dispute between China and Nepal before 1960. The dispute was resolved in their 1961 border agreement. The Chentang township in Tibet is on the other side of the valley. There has been local cross-border trade for decades. It has been sufficiently crucial for the local economy in recent years that in 2008 when Chinese tightened its border control during the Olympics, Kimathanka and the nearby villages faced food shortages due to disruption of the local trade. A Chinese border checkpoint was set up in 2011 checking border crossing permits of Nepalese. In 2015, there were recorded 7700 border crossings and the annual trade at this port was valued at .

Culture

Kimathanka was one of the areas of Nepal that had traditionally practiced

polyandry Polyandry (; ) is a form of polygamy in which a woman takes two or more husbands at the same time. Polyandry is contrasted with polygyny, involving one male and two or more females. If a marriage involves a plural number of "husbands and wives ...

, however that practice is fading.

References

External links

UN map of the municipalities of Sankhuwasabha District
Populated places in Sankhuwasabha District China–Nepal border crossings {{Sankhuwasabha-geo-stub