Nepalese Pupils Get to Know Manuscript Preservation Measures

27 November 2023

Photo: CSMC

During a one-day event on 24 November at the Āśā Archives in Kathmandu, pupils learned about preservation measures for written artefacts and digitisations techniques in an interactive and playful way.

Overall, the programme was attended by 26 pupils from the 9th grade and three teachers from the Sanskrit Ma.Vi. (Sanskrit High School), Ranipokhari, Kathmandu. It was structured in two sessions. First, Bidur Bhattarai, coordinator of the project, introduced the pupils to some basic preservation measures that are being carried out at the Āśā Saphūkuthi (Āśā Archives). They also learned about different writing supports, materials, writing systems, scripts, and how to handle handwritten artefacts. This was followed by a hands-on session in which the attendants learned how to clean manuscripts step by step and how to digitise them. Throughout the event, the high school students participated in these activities with great interest and engagement.

The programme was organised in the context of the project ‘Preserving the Written Cultural Heritage in Nepal’, which is based at the CSMC and is generously supported by the project ‘Hidden Stories: New Approaches to the Local and Global History of the Book’ at the University of Toronto, Canada.