The Nepal Heritage Documentation Project (NHDP) is creating comprehensive digital records of Nepal’s endangered historic cultural monuments. These include temples, monasteries, and palaces, as well as smaller shrines, arcaded platforms, fountains, and other historic buildings. The NHDP is the first project to comprehensively photograph, record, describe, and analyze these structures and to make the records available in a freely accessible database (external link). The work focuses on the Kathmandu Valley, western Nepal, and other locations that are culturally and historically linked to the Kathmandu Valley. The project’s goal is to document and catalog more than 2,000 monuments, 2,500 inscriptions, and 8,000 objects, as well as the unique intangible cultural heritage associated with the monuments: rituals, festivals, and other social and religious events and practices.

The data resulting from the documentation will be added to the Digital Archive of Nepalese Arts and Architecture (DANAM (external link)), the Heidelberg University Library’s image database, HeidICON (external link), and HeiDATA. The data records contain structured information (in English and Nepali) about the monuments, including details on their location, history, architectural structure, and religious and social activities. They also include historical and contemporary photographs, maps, plans, drawings, and transcriptions of inscriptions. The team in Germany and Nepal consists of about 20 experts in the fields of history, architecture, ethnology, Indology, and heritage management. IT specialists ensure high-quality data management.

DANAM is based on Arches (v.4), an open-source software platform for the inventory and management of cultural heritage, which was jointly developed by the Getty Conservation Institute and the World Monuments Fund. All content is available to the general public free of charge.

  • Project Duration:2018–2026 (Pilot Phase: 2018–2020)
  • Headquarters: Heidelberg Center for Transcultural Studies (HCTS) (external link) at the Center for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS)
  • Contact in Heidelberg:Prof. Dr. Christiane Brosius, Prof. Dr. Axel Michaels
  • Go to the NHDP website (external link)