Small towns and market centres are spatial manifestations of the linkages between large cities and the vast rural hinterland. In the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region (HKH) they can play a multiplicity of roles: as the location for central services; as facilitators of agricultural diversification; as centres for agro-processing and small manufacturing activities; as points for arresting migration; and as centres for human resources development. Market and small towns also can be the major tool for implementing the decentralisation policies that are being increasingly advocated. The environmental pollution and social disintegration often associated with large urban areas can be minimised through a policy of promoting market and small towns. In spite of these potential roles, market and small towns do not feature well in the development agenda of most of the HKH countries and little policy and programme attention is paid to them. ICIMOD's interest in small towns and urbanisation in the HKH dates back to its early years when a workshop on Towns in the Mountains was held in 1985. In 1994, a programme on Action-oriented Assessment of Market Towns in Selected Districts was initiated and was followed by a Regional Consultation Meeting on Market and Small Towns in the HKH in December 1998. This publication brings together some of the papers that were presented in the Consultation meeting and is an attempt to redress the lack of attention paid to and information about market centres and small towns. Six chapters cover such diverse topics as the role that market centres and small towns can play in the urbanisation agenda of the HKH region; the state of such towns in Nepal, the Indian Himalayas, and diverse parts of Pakistan -- their evolution and distribution, factors affecting their growth, and their role in the process of social and economic change and regional development; and the complex interface between market development and ethnicity in the hill region of Bangladesh. The final chapter looks at the commonality of problems and perceptions regarding market centres and small towns in different contexts in the HKH and attempts to summarise the emerging themes and issues. It is hoped that these papers will not only add to the literature on market and small towns in the HKH, but will also contribute to a better appreciation of their role in the urbanisation agenda of the region.