Darbang

Darbang (also written Darwang) is the lively bazaar town at the centre of Malika Rural Municipality — said to be the second-largest market in Myagdi. It is the roadhead where the trails climb on toward Dhaulagiri Base Camp and over to Dhorpatan, and the Nepal Chhantyal Sangh counts it among the district’s Chhantyal settlements, where Chhantyal families live among Magar and other communities.

Trace-back

As a market and crossing point, Darbang has long gathered the produce and people of the surrounding hills — including the Chhantyal villages of Malika such as Okharbot. The deeper Chhantyal story here is the familiar one of copper and mountain farming across the Dhaulagiri country.

At the time of the 1991 census

The Darwang VDC recorded 2,819 people in 585 households. The wider Malika Rural Municipality that Darbang now anchors counted 19,459 people in 4,300 households at the 2011 census.

What people do

Darbang lives by trade — its shops and weekly market serve a wide stretch of the hills — alongside farming, a steady flow of trekkers, and income from family working abroad.

From Darbang? Help us record its Chhantyal families, history and photographs through the Connect page.