Musikot () is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

and the district headquarter of

Western Rukum District Western Rukum ( ) a part of Karnali Province, is one of the seventy-seven districts of Nepal. Musikot is the headquarter of the district. Formally Western Rukum District was part of Rukum District, which divided into two districts Western Ruk ...

Karnali Province Karnali Province () is one of the seven federal provinces of Nepal formed by the new constitution, which was adopted on 20 September 2015. The total area of the province is , making it the largest province in Nepal with 18.97% of the country's ...

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 ...

that was established as ''Musikot Khalanga'' on 2 December 2014 by merging the two former Village development committees Musikot and ''Khalanga''. From 2014 until 2018, Musikot was called ''Musikot Khalanga'' and until 2017 served as the district headquarter of

Rukum District Rukum District () was a "hills" and "mountains" district some west of Kathmandu partially belonging to Lumbini Province and partially to Karnali Province before split into two districts Western Rukum and Eastern Rukum after the state's reco ...

. It lies on the bank of Sani Bheri River. It borders with Eastern Rukum in the east, Sanibheri rural municipality in the west, Banfikot rural municipality in the north and Tribeni rural municipality and Rolpa district in the south. Once a red fort of

CPN (Maoist Centre) The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) (), abbreviated CPN (Maoist Centre) or CPN (MC), is the third largest political party in Nepal and a member party of Samajbadi Morcha. It was founded in 1994 after breaking away from the Communi ...

, Musikot is now ruled by

Nepali Congress The Nepali Congress ( ; Abbreviation, abbr. NC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a Social democracy, social democratic List of political parties in Nepal, political party in Nepal and the largest party in the country ...

since the year 2022 and Maoists have finally lost both mayoral and deputy mayoral post.

Demographics

At the time of the

2011 Nepal census Nepal conducted a widespread national census in 2011 by the Nepal Central Bureau of Statistics. Working in cooperation with the 58 municipalities and the 3,915 Village Development Committees at a district level, they recorded data from all the m ...

, Musikot Municipality had a population of 33,882. Of these, 98.9% spoke Nepali, 0.5% Magar-Kham, 0.4% Magar and 0.1% other languages as their first language. In terms of ethnicity/caste, 57.8% were

Chhetri Chhetri (Kshetri, Kshettri, Kshetry or Chhettri), ( ; IAST: ''Kṣetrī'') historically called Kshettriya or Kshetriya or Khas are Nepali language, Nepali speaking people historically associated with the warrior class and administration, some of ...

, 18.4% Magar, 10.9%

Kami are the Deity, deities, Divinity, divinities, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirits, mythological, spiritual, or natural phenomena that are venerated in the traditional Shinto religion of Japan. ''Kami'' can be elements of the landscape, forc ...

, 3.9%

Damai Damai ( ; IAST: ''Damāĩ'') is an occupational caste found among indigenous people comprising 45 subgroups. Their surnames take after the subgroup they belong to. People belonging to this caste are traditionally tailors and musicians capable o ...

/Dholi, 3.0%

Thakuri The Thakuri (Nepali: ठकुरी) . This term is Nepalese title ""Thakuri"", which translates to 'master of the estate'. The term denotes the royal descendants of kings of Baise Rajya and Chaubisi Rajya. During the height of their influence ...

, 2.9% Hill Brahmin, 1.7% Sarki, 0.3% Sanyasi/Dasnami, 0.3% Badi, 0.2%

Newar Newar (; , endonym: Newa; , Pracalit script: ), or Nepami, are primarily inhabitants in Kathmandu Valley of Nepal and its surrounding areas, and the creators of its historic heritage and civilisation. Page 15. Newars are a distinct linguisti ...

, 0.1% other

Dalit Dalit ( from meaning "broken/scattered") is a term used for untouchables and outcasts, who represented the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. They are also called Harijans. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold var ...

, 0.1% Kumal, 0.1%

Musalman Musalman may refer to: *Mussulman, variant of an archaic term for "Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, th ...

, 0.1% other Terai, 0.1% Thakali, 0.1% Tharu and 0.1% others. In terms of religion, 98.4% were

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 ...

, 1.3%

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

, 0.1%

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 ...

, 0.1%

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

, 0.1%

Prakriti Prakriti ( ) is "the original or natural form or condition of anything, original or primary substance". It is a key concept in Hinduism, formulated by the ''Samkhya'' school, where it does not refer merely to matter or nature, but includes all cog ...

and 0.1% others. In terms of literacy, 71.9% could read and write, 2.0% could only read and 26.1% could neither read nor write.

Media

To Promote local culture Musikot has one FM radio station, Radio Sani Bheri F.M. - 89.2 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.

Transportation

Rukum Salle Airport lies in Old-Musikot offering flights to

Nepalgunj Nepalgunj (; ), also spelled Nepalganj, is a List of cities in Nepal#Alphabetical list, Sub-Metropolitan City in Banke district, Banke districts of Nepal, District, Nepal. It lies on the Terai plains near the southern border with Bahraich distr ...

and

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 ...

. Rapti Highway links Musikot to the

Terai The Terai or Tarai is a lowland region in parts of southern Nepal and northern India that lies to the south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas, the Sivalik Hills and north of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. This lowland belt is characterised by ...

region of Nepal.

References

External links

Official website
Populated places in Western Rukum District Municipalities in Karnali Province Nepal municipalities established in 2014 {{WestRukum-geo-stub