Kathmandu, November 9
The Nepal Heritage Documentation Project (NHDP) has collected detailed information on more than 2,000 historical monuments, over 2,500 inscriptions and more than 8,000 archaeological objects in Nepal over eight years.
Launched in 2018, the project also produced documentaries and archival records on various festivals, celebrations and forms of intangible cultural heritage. The collected information has been incorporated into the Department of Archaeology’s National Heritage Register and the project’s digital database.
The project was jointly carried out by the Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies at Heidelberg University, the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Nepal’s Saraf Foundation for Himalayan Traditions and Culture, and the Department of Archaeology. The Arcadia Fund of the United Kingdom provided the principal financial support.
Other collaborating institutions included Heidelberg University Library, Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust (KVPT), UNESCO Nepal, Kathmandu University’s Centre for Art and Design, and the Kathmandu office of Heidelberg University’s South Asia Institute. i3 Mainz in Germany was also involved during the initial phase.
With the project now completed, the Saraf Foundation will operate, maintain and manage the digital database through the Nepal Architecture Archive.
Project director Professor Christiane Brosius said the digital repository would provide a valuable resource for researchers, students and heritage enthusiasts working on the study and preservation of Nepal’s cultural heritage. She described the project’s completion as the beginning of a new phase in heritage conservation.
Saraf Foundation chairperson Arun Saraf said the foundation was committed to preserving the collected knowledge and data in Nepal and ensuring public access. He said the foundation would continue managing the database and making information available to researchers and heritage conservation experts.
Brosius said the project had also documented historical buildings and cultural heritage sites in Nuwakot in detail. The records could prove useful in restoring and conserving structures damaged or swept away by floods, helping rebuild them in their original forms.
More than 800 historical Nepali manuscripts and documents from the Joseph Peter Rindfleisch Collection have also been handed over to the National Archives.
The materials, brought back to Nepal from Germany, include palm-leaf manuscripts, royal decrees, court records, Sanskrit texts and travel accounts dating from the 13th to the 20th centuries.
In accordance with the wishes of the late collector Rindfleisch, the materials were entrusted to Professor Axel Michaels of Heidelberg University in 2018. After being preserved, digitised and catalogued in Germany, they were returned to Nepal and handed over to the National Archives.
