Dor Bahadur Bista

Dor Bahadur Bista
Born	1920s
Disappeared	1995
Known for	Father of Nepalese anthropology
Spouse(s)	Narayani

Dor Bahadur Bista (Nepali: डोर बहादुर बिस्ट) (born ca. 1924-1926) is the best-known anthropologist, social scientist and activist of Nepal. He has published such popular books as Fatalism and Development: Nepal's Struggle for Modernization and People of Nepal. He was born in Jaruwarasi, Patan, Nepal. He is considered the father of Nepalese anthropology.

Sources vary regarding Bista's date of birth. Some say he was born around 1924, others in 1926. He graduated from Patan High School, after which he attended Tri Chandra College. He completed his Certificate in Indian Ethnography in London.

While working as a government headmaster in a girls' high school in Patan, Bista became a research assistant to Professor Christoph Furer-Haimendorf of London University who was conducting field research in the area of Solukhumbu. He later claimed that it was this experience that ignited his interest in Anthropology.

In 1972 he was sent to Lhasa in Tibet as Nepal's Counsel General.

He established an organization called Karnali Institute in Jumla.

In January 1995, Bista mysteriously disappeared from Jumla District, being last seen boarding a bus to Chisapani or Dhangarhi. His wife, Narayani, with whom he had a son, died soon after.

The Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies, which took over from the Nepal Studies Association of which Bista had been Honorary President, awards a prize named after him on an annual basis.

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