sTod-pa is one of four villages located in the valley above the junction of the Humla Karnali and Dozam Khola and is not far from Simikot, the capital of Humla district in the Karnali Zone of north western Nepal. These four villages are collectively known as Bod Yul-tsho bZhi or Nyin Yul-tsho bZhi, that is, the four Tibetan village districts or the four Nyin village districts. The inhabitants of these villages claim to have migrated from Tibet in the distant past, they speak a dialect of western Tibetan and are adherents of Tibetan Buddhism. The term Nyin refers to the particularly advantagous position of the villages on a warm and sunny hillside; Ngin is a Tibetan root meaning sun or day. In accordance with this, Nyin villagers refer to themselves and are referred to by other Humla Tibetan speakers as Nyinba. In Nepali, the area is known as Barthapale and its inhabitants Barthapalya.
