KATHMANDU, Aug 9: More than 30 rare Newa manuscripts dating back 200 to 800 years have been digitized and made publicly accessible online under a UNESCO-supported initiative funded by the Government of Japan.
The manuscripts were digitized by Archive Nepal in partnership with UNESCO under the Memory of the World Framework. The initiative, which ran from November 2025 to August 2026, brought together more than 50 volunteers to preserve manuscripts held at four sites in the Kathmandu Valley, including private collections and community temples in Patan.
According to the UNESCO Nepal Office, the manuscripts have been converted into open-access, machine-readable digital records and made available through Wikisource.
Archive Nepal marked the completion of the initiative with a closing event, ‘Preserving the Past, Empowering the Future: Manuscript Preservation in the Digital Age’, in Kathmandu on August 8.
The initiative involved volunteers from different generations, including young people who learned to read ancestral scripts such as Ranjana, Bhujimol and Prachalit while working on the manuscripts.
‘Mr and Miss Newa Nepal 1140’ calls for application
Acting Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City Sunita Dangol said preserving manuscripts was important not only for safeguarding written records but also for preserving the knowledge contained in them and passing it on to future generations.
The closing event featured a physical exhibition of manuscripts, a panel discussion and a live transcription showcase. Participants were able to view original manuscripts and observe the process of digitizing and transcribing their pages on Wikisource.
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, and Nepal Bhasa script expert Nitu Dangol. Archive Nepal Director of Operations Dristi Manandhar moderated the discussion.
UNESCO Representative to Nepal Jaco du Toit acknowledged the generations of custodians who have protected the manuscripts, saying many documentary collections survived because families, temples, monasteries, guthis and local institutions recognized their value and cared for them despite difficult conditions and limited resources.
The project’s community-based model, which combines traditional custodians, trained volunteers and open digital platforms, could be replicated to preserve other endangered scripts and collections in Nepal and beyond.
During the event, trained volunteers demonstrated the digitization of manuscript pages on Wikisource, while attendees followed a live dashboard showing newly added pages.
Archive Nepal Archive and Operations Officer Saroja Hakuduwal thanked UNESCO, the Government of Japan, project partners, custodians, transcribers and community leaders for their contribution to the initiative.
The digitized 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 the texts online.
