Kathmandu Branch Office

On Friday 8th of November, Resident Representative Frederic Link together with Yogesh Budhathoki and Julia Meckl from the research unit Documents on the History of Religion and Law of pre-modern Nepal of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities visited the Asa Saphukuthi (Asa Archives) in which the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Culture of the University of Hamburg (CSMC) is currently carrying out tasks for the conservation and digitization of manuscripts. Dr Bidur Bhattarai, Coordinator of the project, accompanied them during the visit and explained about methods and challenges of preservation, documentation and storage of manuscripts. The archives contain over 7000 manuscripts and documents in Newari, Nepali, Sanskrit and Maithili, covering a plethora of genres and sources of different sects and traditions. Among them is a considerable number of palm-leaf manuscripts, which are preserved with techniques tailored for the unique material. In the course of the project, manuscripts will be preserved, catalogued, digitized and made accessible to the scholarly community and general public. These manuscripts and artefacts provide important resources to scholars in Nepal and abroad. The visitors were impressed seeing the work in the archives and look forward to further exchange. 

Participants in group photo f.l.t.r.: Dr Bidur Bhattarai (CSMC), Tej Maya Maharjan (CSMC), Julia Meckl (SAI), Resident Representative Frederic Link (SAI), Sharad Kasa (ASK), Kedar Ghimire (CSMC), Pradip Rana Magar (CSMC)