An update from earthquake hit Kathmandu that witnessed colossal destruction of iconic buildings and the intangible cultural heritage.
The three major Durbar Squares in Kathmandu Valley located at Bhaktapur, Patan, and Basantpur (all UNESCO World Heritage Sites) consisting of magnificent old palaces, temples, and other buildings suffered colossal damage. At Kathmandu Durbar Square, several iconic buildings survived but Kasthamandap, the very structure that gave Kathmandu its name, was reduced to rubble, amongst other temples and buildings. At Patan Darbar, the Char Narayan Temple and the Hari Shankar temple, amongst finest temples in the square, went down within seconds, while the Krishna Mandir remained almost unscathed. The rescued wood panels with intricate wood panels, valuable artefacts and other treasures are being stored at the Patan Museum, which survived the earthquake. In Bhaktapur, the main temple in the square lost its roof, while the 16th Century Vatsala Durga temple, famous for its sandstone walls and gold-topped pagodas was demolished by the quake.
The half-century old Tribhuvan University (TU) Central Library, Nepal’s largest, houses half a million books, 100,000 journals and periodicals, thousand-year-old precious Hindu manuscripts and rare genealogies of the country’s dynastic rulers. Following the first earthquake, the building was deemed unsafe but the employees keen to salvage the collections, had begun rearranging the bookshelves, when the second big quake hit on 12 May. TU has set up the 'TU Reconstruction Fund' for public donations after the earthquake devastated the university, as the TU vice-chancellor Hira Bahadur Maharjan says, “In a time of national crisis we cannot leave everything to the government alone. We want to set an example by showing that we are capable of generating resources on our own. This will lower the burden on the government.” |
There are a number of perspectives and interpretations on the histories of the Subcontinent. The various archives found in different parts of the Subcontinent serve as important means of understanding and appreciating regional history. Archives Southasia emerged from Hri’s commitment to highlighting the importance of archiving and garnering greater recognition of the individual archives.
Even as the importance of historical and social archiving is beginning to be recognised in Southasia today, it would be fair to say that the immense importance of archives for the overall advancement of society is not recognised. Moreover, the resources set aside to undertake this important activity of collecting and cataloguing documentation are largely limited to government-run national or state archives, the running of which is ‘politicised’ across the region. Meanwhile, historical records at the district level or lower, whether governmental or private are almost wholly neglected.
To bring these crucial stores of historical information to the fore, we are working on connecting a number of private collections across the region. The purpose of bringing these archives together is manifold. To begin with, none of these scattered private collections have any link with each other today. The direct consequence of this isolation is the fact that all the source material remains underutilised, if at all used. The link between the archives will also create spaces for cross-border fellowships of archivists, among other exchanges, to take place, thus recreating the past social, academic and economic exchanges that took place in the region in the past.
As a first step, we began listing the various private archives and collections of Southasia, listed in the Archives Southasia Database on its website; this is an on-going process aimed at being a useful service, especially for research in Southasia. Hri also organised the first-ever meeting of archivists from across the region, which acted as a unique platform to work toward ensuring that archives do not become morgues. Archivists, scholars and collectors from Bangalore, Chennai, Dhaka, Ernakulum, Kathmandu, Kolkata, Lahore,Mumbai, New Delhi and Yangon, shared experiences and valuable insights on the possibilities of making archives dynamic spaces to not only re-look at history, but redefine it.
Inspired by the rich diversity and depth of experience and knowledge in the group, we hope to continue the work and facilitate more exchanges in the future.
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Caring for history
Archaic conservation methods are themselves hastening the deterioration of fragile archival material in India, says Dinyar Patel.
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Copying Right, Left and Centre
The British Library’s recent release into the public domain, of documents from as far back as the 17th Century bring into focus issues of copyright and whose interests it serves, says Sarita Ramamoorthy.
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The Everyday Extraordinary
At a unique exhibition, history and the everyday collide in the most astonishing manner, leaving the viewer wordless in the face of the poetics of the sudden eruption of the ordinary in the extraordinary.
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Southasia Comes to Daudpur
Hosting the Hri exhibition “Lived Stories, Everyday Lives” at his ancestral village in Ludhiana district of Punjab was a unique experience for Daljit Ami
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Archivists take Centre Stage
Diligently preserving priceless heritage, archivists go about their painstaking task silently and mostly unacknowledged. The recent exhibitions showcasing archives was as much about the individuals undertaking
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Archives Southasia Database lists more than 470 collections across eight countries in Southasia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). These are spread over more than 40 categories, and several sub-categories.
Browse Database
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8 December 2015 |
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Fernando Botero’s contribution to the city of Medellin is not just the very
13 October 2015 |
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The Judicial Historical Archives allows a peek into centuries-old notions of
10 September 2015 |
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9 September 2015 |
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Nepal is still reeling with shocks and aftershocks after the earthquake on 25th
26 April 2015 |
"Hri" - a sound or a vibration, the utterance of which awakens the empathy that is an inherent part of every sentient being. Regionalism must no longer remain a prisoner of platitude, since there is a consensus that geopolitical friction, poverty and pressing environmental issues as well as cultural and social dislocation must be addressed through the regional framework. There is a need to revive and energise discussions of regionalism on the platform of mainstream politics, public information and research, with a dynamic Southasian sensibility.
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