Malangwa, headquarters of Sarlahi district in Nepal’s Madhesh Province, is a border market town of the western Maithili plains, close to the Bihar frontier near Sitamarhi. A centre of trade and administration for a fertile farming district, it lies in the lower Bagmati country where the Maithili and Bhojpuri zones meet.
It is one of the chain of Madhesh district capitals — with Jaleshwar, Gaur and Kalaiya — that line the open border, each tied by daily commerce and kinship to the Indian villages across the way.