THE MUSTANG ARCHIVES: ANALYSIS OF HANDWRITTEN DOCUMENTS VIA THE ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF PAPERMAKING TRADITIONS IN NEPAL

• Applicant: Dr. Agnieszka Helman-Wazny
• Subject Area: Asian Studies
• Term: from 2015 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 268925785

This project aims to identify and classify, through microscopic study, the paper varieties of previously catalogued and dated documents from local villages and family archives in Mustang, Nepal. It will also contribute to reconstructing the history of paper in the very special environment of Mustang. Overall, my aim is to build, via scientific analysis of the paper on which the texts are written, a solid geographical and periodical catalogue and database that will cover at least the last two centuries, and provide data for earlier works as well.Of the group of dated documents, all together two hundred papers will be selectively sampled and examined from the archives of the communities of Lubrak, Geling, Lower Tshognam, a private collection in Jharkot, Lo Monthang, and other possible collections previously catalogued. These works are mostly of a secular nature, letters, community documents, etc. Data will be recorded according to the codicological template developed by previous work of the applicant on manuscripts from Central Asia. Information gathered from the manuscripts will be compared with book production practices still used in the region, using secondary literature and interviews with craftsmen. Active places of book production, papermaking, and printing will be researched during fieldwork in Mustang and neighbouring areas. Papermaking technology and methods, tools, and materials being used will be documented. Papermaking plants and other resources on book culture will be mapped.This interdisciplinary project, combining textual and codicological analysis of archival documents with ethnographic and botanical fieldwork and exploration of manuscript cultures in Mustang, will be of extreme importance for researchers in Tibetan Studies. The resulting chronological typology of paper and database will be of immediate use to paper historians and conservators around the world. And finally, for the local people of Mustang, this project has the potential to change perceptions of Tibetan writing and techniques of documents and book production, as well as to make a major contribution to our understanding of the cultural history of the once-independent kingdom of Mustang.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: France
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Charles Ramble, Ph.D.