Supporting Digital Preservation

Your photographs past & present

• If you have digital photographs that clearly show a now damaged or collapsed temple or monument in Nepal from many angles then please share it with us. A full 360 degree of the temple would be ideal, but even partial rotations would be of huge benefit. Please contact us if you need instructions.
• Panoramic or walk-through film or digital photographs of destroyed or damaged temple areas displaying the courtyards and monuments within them. eg. Bhaktapur Durbar Square.

Historical photographs

In recent years it’s become apparent that historical photographs of Nepal are disappearing. These include photographs and paintings from the 1800-1900s. Many have ended up in private collections both within Nepal and outside. Some of these have been lost, damaged, or destroyed.

• If you have old film photographs of temples from the past then please share them with use. We can use this data for comparison with newer imagery, display urbanisation issues and we can add them to the digital archive for safe keeping.

A prime example is that of the 1901 AD photograph (Herzog and Higgins) of Bhaktapur Durbar Square with the Harishankhana temple in the far background. In front of it, to the right, is the eight-cornered Chyasilin Mandap, both of which were destroyed during the earthquake of 1934. Photographs of Chyasilin Mandap were available and helped with the reconstruction. While photographs of the Harishankhana temple are rare with this being one of the only photographs in existence. The only other depiction of the Harishankhana temple is a painting.

Bhaktapur’s Durbar Square before the 1934 earthquake (Herzog and Higgins circa 1901) – restored by the Digital Archaeology Foundation