Dolakha District

Dolakha दोलखा
District
Dolakha District
Country	Nepal
Region	Central (Madhyamanchal)
Zone	Janakpur
Headquarters	Charikot (Bhimeshwar
Area
• Total	2,191 km2 (846 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	186,557
• Density	85/km2 (220/sq mi)
Time zone	NPT (UTC+5:45)
Website	http://www.ddcdolakha.gov.np/

Dolakha, often known as Dolkha or Dholkha (Nepali:  Listen ), a part of Province No. 3, is one of the seventy-five districts of Nepal. The district, with Charikot as its district headquarters, covers an area of 2,191 km² and has a population of 204,229 in 2001 and 186,557 in 2011. It is a district with a strong religious affiliation. It is popularly known amongst most Nepalese for the temple of Dolakha Bhimeshawor.

The Bhimeshwar temple is located in Dolakha Bazar of Bhimeshwar. The main statue of this temple is god Bhim. Bhimsen or Bhimeshwar or Bhim of Dolakha and is noted as one of the most popular throughout the country Nepal. He was the second prince of panch pandav and notably worshiped by the traders or merchandizers as their will god. In Dolakha, the roofless temple constitutes the idol of Bhimsen, which is triangular in shape and made of rough stone. The idol in the temple is said to resemble three different gods: Bhimeshwar in the morning, Mahadeva during the day and the Narayana in the evening.

Local legend has it that ages ago, 12 porters coming from elsewhere stopped at this spot and they made three stone stoves to cook rice. After a few minutes, it was noticed that one side of the rice grains were cooked but the other side was raw. When the porter flipped the cooked side up, the cooked rice became raw again when it came in contact with the triangular-shaped black-stone. One of the porters became very angry and stubbed the stone with "Paneu" (laddle), which cut the stone and out of the cut flowed blood coated with milk. Later they realized that the stone is God Bhim. Worshippers started pouring in to pray God Bhim onwards. There are many faith-challenging incidents about the Bhimsen of Dolakha. The miraculous things of Bhimsen statue of Dolakha include sweating fluid like drops of warm water. People believe that if any bad incident is happening or going to happen in near future in the country then Bhimsen himself tries to protect his people by warning them through sweating etc.