Lesja is a municipality in Oppland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Lesja.

The parish of Lesje was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). The area of Dovre was separated from Lesja to become a municipality of its own in 1861.

Lesja is bordered in the north by the municipalities of Nesset, Sunndal, and Oppdal; in the east by Dovre; in the south by Vågå and Lom; in the southwest by Skjåk; and to the west by Rauma.

The Old Norse form of the name was Lesjar (plural form). There are two different interpretations of the meaning of the name. It might derive from læs meaning "pasture", or it is a shortened version of "Leirsjøar" meaning "muddy lakes", referring to two relatively large and shallow lakes which occupied the valley bottom until the late 19th century, when both lakes were drained in order to gain more farmland.

The coat-of-arms is from modern times. They were granted on 23 January 1987. The form is meant to represent the spire of Lesja church which is visible from far away.

Lesja is highly mountainous, and lies on the east-west watershed, with Lesjaskogsvatnet lake draining both west to the Rauma river and east to the Gudbrandsdalslågen river. The largest part (82%) of the community area is over 900 metres (3,000 ft) above sea level, with the highest mountain peaks reaching above an elevation of 2,200 metres (7,200 ft) in the northeast. The most populated areas lie between 500 and 650 metres (1,640 and 2,130 ft) along the Gudbrandsdalslågen river and highway E136. Abundant summer farms (seter or sæter) are situated close to the treeline, both in the main valley and its tributaries. The summer farms were of major importance for farming until recently, but today only few are used in the traditional way, and mainly as grounds for grazing dairy cattle and sheep. More than 400 lakes are situated within the municipality, mainly above treeline. The Norwegian trout is common both in lakes and rivers, even in lakes above 1,500 metres (4,900 ft) above sea level. The landscape is hummocky in general, and owes its appearance mainly to erosion by the Scandinavian Ice Sheet during the last glacial period.

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