Lekhnath () was a municipality in

Kaski District Kaski District (, ), a part of Gandaki Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. The name is disambiguated from Kaskikot, the ancient Kaski Kingdom. The district, with Pokhara as its district headquarter, covers an area of 2,01 ...

in the

Gandaki Province Gandaki Province ( ) ), is one of the seven federal provinces established by the current constitution of Nepal which was promulgated on 20 September 2015. Pokhara is the province's capital city. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region in Southw ...

of northern-central

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 ...

, about 180 km west of

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

. It has now been merged into

Pokhara Pokhara ( ) is a metropolis, metropolitan city located in central Nepal, which serves as the capital of Gandaki Province. Named the country's "capital of tourism" it is the List of cities in Nepal, second largest city after Kathmandu, with 599,5 ...

sub-metropolitan city to form Pokhara

metropolis A metropolis () is a large city or conurbation which is a significant economic, political, and cultural area for a country or region, and an important hub for regional or international connections, commerce, and communications. A big city b ...

Pokhara Valley Pokhara Valley is the second-largest valley in the hilly region of Nepal. It lies in the western part of Nepal. The cities of Pokhara and Lekhnath are in the valley. As of 2023, Pokhara has a population of 599,504. It is located in Gandaki zone, ...

was politically divided between Pokhara city and Lekhnath which occupied the eastern half of the valley. There were 18 wards in total in Lekhnath municipality before the merger, with a VDC Bharat Pokhari that had been added at a later stage.

Population

Total population of Lekhnath was 71,434 per 2011 census. Composition of the population was 86%

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

, 8%

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

and 6% others.　According to another statistics by the Population Census (C), Lekhnath has seen population changes from 30,107 as of 22 June 1991 contrasted to 41,369 (28 May 2001 per Population Census (Cf)) and 59,498 (22 June 2011 per Population Census (Cf)).

Etymology

Lekhnath, or literally meaning ''novelist'' in Nepali language, was named after the famous Nepali poet Lekhnath Paudyal (1885–1966), who was born at Arghaun Archale, or ward No.6 (before the merger) of Lekhnath Municipality. The city was also entitled as the garden city of seven lakes.

Geology

Those seven lakes are Begnas,

Rupa Rupa may refer to: Places *Rupa, Arunachal Pradesh, India, a town *Rupa, Croatia, a town *Rupa, Kranj, a former village, now part of the city of Kranj, Slovenia *Rupa gold mine, Uganda *Rupa Lake, Nepal Organizations * RUPA, Rugby Union Players ...

, Khaste, Depang, Maidi, Neureni and Gunde. Except Begnas and

most of the other lakes are little known to the outsiders.

Hiking routes

Lekhnath possesses many terrains and mountain view sites. It is growing into a popular destination for hikers because of many beautiful routes through the hills with views of multiple lakes and majestic himalayas at the same time. Lekhanth is the place from where you can catch the view of whole Annapurna range including

Machhapuchhre Machapuchare, Machhapuchchhre or Machhapuchhre (, Tamu: कतासुँ क्लिको), is a mountain situated in the Annapurna massif of Gandaki Province, north-central Nepal. Its highest peak has never been officially climbed due to t ...

and

Dhaulagiri Dhaulagiri, located in Nepal, is the seventh highest mountain in the world at above sea level, and the highest mountain within the borders of a single country. It was first climbed on 13 May 1960 by a Swiss-Austrian-Nepali expedition. Annapur ...

. Gagangaunda, Shishuwa, Lekhnath chok, Janatako Chautara, Satmuhane, , Budhibazar, Dhungepatan, Khodi, , Talchok are some big and notable places of Lekhnath.

Media

To promote local culture Lekhnath has one FM radio station Radio Lekhnath 106.6 MHz which is a

community radio Community radio is a radio service offering a third model of radio broadcasting in addition to commercial broadcasting, commercial and public broadcasting. Community broadcasting, Community stations serve geographic communities and communities o ...

Station. To update Lekhnath dwellers and diasporas websites Cityof7lakes.com, Lekhnathcity.com and Lekhnath.com are created.

Footnotes

Notes

References

External links

7 Lakes in Lekhnath

the 2nd Begnas Fish Festival at Baishakh, 17-19, 2073B.S.
{{Authority control Populated places in Kaski District Nepal municipalities established in 1997 Former municipalities of Nepal