Dolpo borders Tibet on the north and northeast, Jumla and Mugu on the west, Myagdi, Jajarkot and Rukum on the south, and Mustang on the east. The headquarters of the district is Dunai.

Though there are 23 Village Development Committees in the district, all the VDCs do not fall in the trekking route. VDCs that fall on the trekking routes are Juphal, Dunai, Lawan, Shartara, Dho Tarap, Tinje (Tinkyu), Chharka, Mukkot, Saldang, Bhijer, Liku, Phoksundo, Raha, Tripurakot, Pahada, Kaigaon and Rimi. Five out of 23 village development committees fall in the Upper Dolpo region, they are Mukkot, Chharka, Tinje, Bhijer and Saldang. The total population of the district is nearly 37000.

The region is expanded from the elevation of 1,525 to 7,751 m. Due to the vast expansion of the land mass; the weather condition varies a lot in different places of the region. As the district falls behind the Himalayas, the precipitation is very low.

According to the climatic zones, the district can be categorized as below:

  • Subtropical zone- that covers a very little mass of area
  • Temperate zone – that covers a few more land area than Subtropical zone
  • Trans-himalyan – that covers most of the land area more than 70%.
  • Alpine zone- that covers nearly 8% land area.
  • Nial zone- that covers nearly 4% of land area.