Staff Reporter
MORE than 30 rare and endangered Newa manuscripts, dating back between 200 and 800 years, have been digitised and made openly accessible online through a UNESCO-supported project aimed at preserving Nepal’s documentary and cultural heritage for future generations.
The initiative was implemented by UNESCO in partnership with Archive Nepal, with support from the Government of Japan, under UNESCO’s Memory of the World Framework.
UNESCO has undertaken similar efforts in Namibia, where the National Archives of Namibia received digitisation equipment through the Memory of the World Programme in 2025 to help preserve and digitise fragile historical collections, including the Maharero Papers and other significant archival records. The initiative also included capacity-building and training to strengthen Namibia’s ability to preserve and provide access to its documentary heritage.
Photos: UNESCO representative Nepal, Jaco du Toit
The milestone was marked during a closing event titled Preserving the Past, Empowering the Future: Manuscript Preservation in the Digital Age, held in Kathmandu.
The project ran from November 2025 to August 2026 and brought together more than 50 volunteers from different generations. Among them were young people learning to read their ancestral scripts for the first time.
The volunteers digitised manuscripts held at four locations across the Kathmandu Valley, including private collections and community temples in Patan. The materials have been converted into open-access, machine-readable digital records available through Archive Nepal’s digital library (archivenepal.org) and Wikisource.
The manuscripts, written in Ranjana, Bhujimol and Prachalit scripts, provide a record of centuries of Newa culture and history.
Acting Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Sunita Dangol said preserving the manuscripts was important not only for protecting the physical documents but also for ensuring that the knowledge contained within them could be passed on.
“Preserving manuscripts is not just about preserving what was written in it; it’s also about gaining the knowledge of what has been written in it,” Dangol said.
She said the Kathmandu Metropolitan City had continued efforts to preserve the past and promote it among future generations, calling for further collaboration between stakeholders.
The closing event featured a physical exhibition of the manuscripts, a panel discussion involving key stakeholders and a live transcription demonstration.
The panel discussion, titled Guardians of the Written Word: Digital Preservation of Newa Manuscripts and Collective Responsibility, brought together manuscript custodians Suresh Bajracharya and Shivesh Sharma of Bhimsen Mandir, as well as Nepal Bhasa script expert Nitu Dangol. It was moderated by Archive Nepal’s Director of Operations, Dristi Manandhar.
The discussion examined the project’s progress and highlighted the shared responsibility of protecting Nepal’s documentary heritage.
UNESCO Representative to Nepal Jaco du Toit acknowledged the custodians who have protected the manuscripts over generations.
“I would especially like to acknowledge the custodians who have protected these manuscripts over generations. Many of these documentary collections have survived because families, temples, monasteries, guthis and local institutions recognised their value and accepted the responsibility of caring for them, often under difficult conditions and with limited resources,” du Toit said.
As part of the event, trained volunteers demonstrated how manuscript pages are digitised and uploaded to Wikisource. Visitors were able to follow the process through a live dashboard showing newly added pages.
Archive Nepal Archive and Operations Officer Saroja Hakuduwal said the project was the result of the combined efforts of volunteers, custodians, community leaders and partner organisations.
“A project like this is never the work of one person; it is the work of many hands, hearts, and quiet acts of faith along the way,” Hakuduwal said.
She thanked UNESCO, the Government of Japan, Archive Nepal staff, project partners, custodians, transcribers and community leaders for contributing to the initiative.
The project’s community-based approach, which combines traditional custodianship with trained volunteers and open digital platforms, is expected to provide a model that could be applied to other endangered scripts and collections in Nepal and beyond.
The digitised manuscripts are now available to the public through Wikisource and Archive Nepal’s digital library, allowing researchers, students and community members to view, search and study materials that were previously accessible to only a limited number of custodians and scholars.
The initiative aims to ensure that both the manuscripts and the traditional scripts used to read them remain preserved and accessible to future generations.
