Retrieving the documented history of Nepal and making it accessible to the community

Retrieving the documented history of Nepal and making it accessible to the community

Every story is a history in the making if we know its value and the difference it makes. With its rich heritage, diverse communities, and sustained international engagements, Nepal is home to many such stories. Recognizing that these stories would fade as memories with time if not documented while they still mattered, Arun Saraf and his wife, Namita Saraf, initiated the Nepal Architecture Archive.

Nepal Architecture Archive is the actualization of the Saraf family’s years-long association with and commitment to Nepal, its heritage, and its culture.

In the 60s, when Mr Saraf's father, Radhe Shyam Saraf, expanded his business profile into the hospitality sector, they made their first step into heritage preservation with the restoration of Lal Durbar. After its restoration, the family entered Nepal's tourism industry with the opening of Hotel Yak and Yeti in 1977. It was then that Radheshyam Saraf told his son that if tourism were to survive in this country, it was paramount to take care of our natural heritage and the past. "Nepal Tourism Industry is an inheritance from our ancestors and nature," he had stated. It was only a matter of time before his father's words would reflect in his endeavors.

Nepal was still in a cocoon when it opened to the world outside in the 50s. The metamorphosis it went through began to reflect in the late 80s and early nineties, and it certainly was not a pleasant sight. Exposed to the intellectual and creative gatherings of scholars, artists, painters and collectors and engaged in culture and tourism since a very young age, Mr Saraf had learned the significance of the country's inheritance early on.

However, witnessing Kathmandu's rapidly depleting natural and historical landscape due to unregulated urbanization and population explosion made him realize the value and significance of our heritage beyond generational legacy and tourism. He could see how the valley was swiftly losing its soul. Heritage and history had always been at his heart, but it was more substantial this time, and his vision shifted towards a greater goal.

Lal Durbar underwent a second phase of restoration in 1990. Preserving the building's essence and history was essential. It was equally pivotal to capturing and promoting the elements of Nepal's heritage in future projects. Thus, in 1998, the Saraf family began constructing the Hyatt Regency Kathmandu, incorporating traditional Newar architecture and paying tribute to the local heritage. Mr. and Mrs. Saraf were both committed to the vision. Eventually, their love and appreciation for the Nepali Heritage would spill over from their family business to passion.

The next step was to dive deeper into heritage preservation by collecting, documenting, archiving, and exhibiting Nepal's cultural and built heritage so that future generations would take pride in their abundant legacy.

In 2009, during a conversation at Yak and Yeti Bar with Niels Gutschow and Erich Theophile (the architect for the Lal Darbar extension), the idea of starting a museum and a documentation center took shape - to preserve Nepal's recent history, connecting its architectural and cultural heritage. The main objective was to bring back Nepal-related projects and documents from around the world by reaching out to foreign architects, scholars, artists, anthropologists, and individuals who were based in Nepal during the 50s and onwards.

The collected works were to be displayed at the museum to spread awareness and encourage discussions on the importance of our ancestral heritage. The location for the project was the Taragaon Village Hotel, which facilitated accommodation for tourists during the 70s.

Moving forward with their plan, they first formalized its restoration by consulting Carl Pruscha, the architect who designed and built the structures in 1972. After five years of extensive research and restoration activities, the Taragaon Museum was inaugurated in 2014.

The history and significance of Taragaon's space and buildings complemented the idea of the project. Taragaon Hotel Village, being one of the early examples of urban projects in Kathmandu, was most suitable to exhibit the urban culture and heritage of the valley and beyond. The buildings were deteriorating, and it was essential to preserve this architectural heritage. With the guidance of Niels Gutschow and under the management of Natasha Saraf, the project began materializing. The intellectual counseling from Gutschow and Thomas Schrom played a huge part in successfully shaping the project.

The buildings were strengthened, restored, and modernized, keeping the original elements but using modern technology and materials to create a unique space that would become an urban oasis for the community.

Initially, 150 works from various renowned scholars and individuals were collected and displayed at the museum.

The collection continued to grow over the years, and by 2015, the numbers reached 2000. By 2016, it was imperative to establish a dedicated physical space to archive and preserve those collections. Thus, in 2016, the Nepal Architecture Archive was conceptualized, designed, and launched with the support and guidance of Niels Gutschow and his team. Arun Saraf announced their initiative at the opening of Raj Man Singh Chitrakar's exhibition at the Taragaon Museum in November 2016. The Saraf Foundation took the initiative and created a space for NAA.

Today, the Foundation has three projects: Taragaon Next, Sagarmatha Next, and NAA. While NAA works to preserve Nepal's architectural and cultural heritage, Sagarmatha Next is concerned with conserving and promoting the natural heritage. Taragaon Next collaborates across projects to facilitate a space for dialogues and exchanges on multiple topics through artistic expressions, exhibitions, and programming.

The collection at NAA today has expanded to a hundred thousand materials and objects, including drawings, surveys, maps, sketches, paintings, research papers, journals, bibliographies, references, research projects, project proposals and reports, correspondence, diary entries, certificates, budget sheets, books, magazines, newspapers, posters, postcards, photographs, slides, negatives, floppy disks, vinyl, cassettes, pots and bricks, and wood structures. NAA houses the most extensive collection of scholarly resources and materials on intangible and built heritage, produced mainly during the second half of the twentieth century.

As the collection grew, it was vital to formalize the archiving process. In 2017, the Foundation worked with Eka Resources, a professional archiving institution, to standardize the documentation of our core collections following an international practice. They continued with the second documentation phase in 2020/21 and trained the in-house archivists to carry forward the work in standard practice.

As an archive, NAA continues to collect and document. The archive is advancing and pursuing new goals and objectives under the leadership and guidance of Mr. Saraf's son, Varun Saraf. We run various programs and exhibitions to connect across platforms and for access. The next step is making our collections accessible for study and research through the online database we are currently working on.