Fri. 13. 01. 2023
09:15- 10:45 Hrs. (CET Germany)
5:15-6:45 pm (JST Japan)

Online
━ ZOOM Link
Meeting ID: 826 6024 3111
Passcode: pothi

Poster

Manuscriptology and Digital Humanities
Co-organized with Otani University Collection Buddhist Manuscript Research Project, Shin Buddhist Comprehensive Research Institute, Otani University, Kyoto

▍ Documenting and Editing Inscriptions from the Kathmandu Valley and Beyond

Manik Bajracharya & Rajan Khatiwoda (Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities)

The main aim of the “Nepal Heritage Documentation Project” (NHDP), which is funded by Arcadia and run by the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies in collaboration with Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, is to create a near-complete national inventory that helps to capture Nepal's most endangered and previously undocumented built heritage, with a focus on the historically densely and rich Kathmandu Valley—home to seven UNESCO World Heritage Monuments. This inventory will be a watershed moment in heritage studies, as well as a popular tool, flagship, incentive and hub for many public institutions (governmental agencies, museums, archives, universities, and so on) in Nepal and beyond. The project places a special emphasis on the documentation and study of inscriptions found within and around built heritage sites. To begin, those inscriptions, which are largely undocumented and unstudied, serve as a site's "birth certificate," explaining why it was built as well as changed. Second, they serve as primary records of historical facts as well as culturally significant objects. Third, these written artefacts continue to play a role in modern socio-ritual practices, particularly in the creation and transformation of places, identities, and public spheres.

The goal of this talk is to discuss how the NHDP and its collaborating project "Documents on the History of Religion and Law in Pre-modern Nepal" use digital humanities tools to document and study inscriptions, and how the results are made publicly accessible through long-term sustainable digital platforms.