Kathmandu Branch Office

This year Heidelberg University’s South Asia Institute (SAI) is celebrating its 60th anniversary, its Kathmandu Branch Office is celebrating its 35th anniversary. The presence over this period of time in Nepal highlights the part this institution has played in promoting and organizing research on Nepal, and is motivated by the sincere hope that such academic exchange and cooperation will continue to be stimulated and facilitated far into the future. We are celebrating therefore 35 years of academic cooperation between South Asia Institute and Nepal in form of a Nepal Day program (21/22 July) in Heidelberg which begins with the signing of the MoU between the University of Heidelberg and the Tribbhuvan University in the Bel Etage of the Old University. The detailed program can be read here.

On March 10, 2022, the newly appointed German Ambassador to Nepal, Dr. Thomas Prinz and Cultural Attaché Gregor Czaja were visiting the Nepal Research Bhawan to see the Kathmandu branch office of the South Asia Institute and get an idea about completed and ongoing projects. Resident Representative Frederic Maria Link had the opportunity to introduce them to the premises, infrastructure, activities and history of the Kathmandu branch office. Prof Dr. Axel Michaels informed the Ambassador about mayor completed projects and the ongoing project ‘Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Pre-modern Nepal’ hosted by Heidelberg Academy of Sciences.

The meeting also included presentations by Prof. Dr. Christiane Brosius on the Nepal Heritage Documentation Project (NHDP) of the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies and the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in which she aquainted the Ambassador Prinz with the Digital Archive of Nepalese Arts and Monuments (DANAM). Dr. Bidur Bhattarai also participated in the meeting by presenting the project ‘Preserving the Written Cultural Heritage of Nepal’ of the Centre for Study of Manuscript Cultures at University of Hamburg.

Ambassador Prinz, who himself holds a PhD from SAI Heidelberg, showed great interest in the presentations. The meeting led to a fruitful discussion on collaboration with the German Embassy regarding a function for SAI Kathmandu branch office’s 35^th Anniversary in September 2022 and general possibility of a close cooperation and mutual support.