Dolpo covers 15% of the area of Nepal and has been arbitrarily divided into a Lower (Outer) and Upper (Inner) region. It is the highest inhabited land in Nepal, hidden behind high passes from the south and lying northwest of Dhaulagiri and the Kali Gandaki gorge. Geographically it is a southern extension of Tibet, within the borders of Nepal: a vast arid region of brown ridges in the rain-shadow of the monsoon