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________________ 170 - ALBRECHT WEZLER A Chicnalia 1991 169.172 inted in Denmark will right reserved Copyright (c) 1995 ACTA ORIENTALIA ISSN OM 64 IR German Research in Nepal Albrecht Werler Hissity of Misconceptions, but especially confusions are not rarely the result of identical or similar expressions or names. Most of us have already caught ourselves in an error of this type and for many philologists in the continental sense of the word), at least those dealing with problems of Icxtual criticism or preparing editions of texts, crrors due to say home telenton are their stock-in-trade, so to say. - of course as something to he recognized rather than to be done. It is lence quite understandable that l'er Kvaerne in his review of B. Kilver (ed.). Aspects of Nepalese Traditions, Nepal Research Centre Publications No. 19, Stuttgart (F Steiner) 1992 project defined thematically and/or regionally, whereas "collaborative research centies" are by definition established at one particular university only. My friend, Prof. Dr. Bernhard Kolver (University of Leipzig), was in charge of, i.e. had planned and had then been coordinating, a Research Programme on Overarching Traditions in Nepal, briefly called "Nepal Research Programme", which started its work in 1990 and continued it de facto until 1991. In 1992 another Research Programme, equally con cerned with Nepal, was started jointly by the gengrapher Willibald Haffner (University of Giessen) and the Tibetologist Dieter Schuh (University of Bonn), but its thematical frame ("Ralmenthema") is Processes of Seliling and State Formation in the Tibetan llimalaya. The "Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project" (NGMPI), as it is conveniently called started in 1970 and which I took over in 1985 alter the unexpected demise of its founder and former director, the Indologist and librarian Dr. Wolfgang Voigt), however, is a long-term project for microfilming Wall Asian manuscripts in the Kingdom of Nepal", the concept "manuscripts" including also xylographs - which after all are carved by hand - as well as historical documents, deeds of land, etc., all of which are likewise written by hand. The "Nepal Research Centre" (= NRC), finally, the former "Thyssen Ilouse", is the "oldest German cooperative institution on Nepalese soil": in 1974 it was taken over by the German Oriental Society ("Deutsche Morgenlandische Gesellschaft") and has since 1977 it has been working under five year agreements with the Research Division of the Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, or, to be precise; Kirtipur. The NRC has four principal aims, viz. to render assistance to scholars visiting Nepal, lo organize lectures, seminars, elc., in particular to publish especially the results of research on and/or in Nepal, and to provide working facilities and 'bed-and-breakfast', to scholars from abroad (cf. Scientific Projects and llimalayan Culoure (1960-1992). Nepal Research Centre, Kathmandu 1992). It is, of course, the "Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project" which has, lo quote from Kvaerne's review, discovered and microfilmed more than 100.000 inanuscripts - mainly in Sanskrit and Tibetan. In fact the number of manuscripts in the sense explained above) microfilmed has meanwhile risen to almost 150.000, approximately one fifth of them being Tibetan. The NGMPP is based on an agreement between llis Mairsty's Government of Nepal and the German Oriental Societ y in Acta Orientalia 55 (1994), 280 (Fr.) fell a prey to the indeed similar names of two different projects concerned with Nepal and a research institute in Nepal. Even the mere thought of reproaching him with ascribing the work done by one project to the other would certainly be ridiculous. But I gladly follow his suggestion and gratefully avail myself of the opportunity for a clarification, kindly offered by him. The "Grerman Research Council" ("Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft"), the central self-administrative organization of sciences in Ger many, distinguishes between different categories of research projects which it supports financially such as short-term research projects, longterm research projects, research programmes ("Forschungsschwer punkte"), collaborative research centres ("Sonderforschungsbereiche"), etc. (cf. The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschali. Organization and Func tions, Bonn 1990). A common feature of the last two is interdisciplinarity, but a "research programme" brings together scholars from different universities, sometimes even countries, who wish to work on a particular
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________________ 172 ALBRECHT WEZLER GERMAN RESEARCH IN NEPAL 171 NGMPP has been used. Indeed, such publications began to appear already in the course of the first five years, and their number has been sleadily growing since 1975. For many years now the main focus of the work of the project in Nepal have been Tibetan texts, and in fact approximately one third of those already microfilmed are lexts which were not known or not previously accessible elsewhere; but in order to reach the generally for- off villages or Gompas in the higher regions of the Nepalese Himalaya where they happen to have been preserved it is necessary to carry out veritable expeditions. Regarding some of the particularly important results of this part of the activities of the NGMPP, I should like to refer the reader to the reports given by E.-K. Ehrhard in European Bulletin of Himalayan Research 2 (1991), 20-24 as well as Abhilekh 7 (1989), 51--58, 8 (1990), 78-82, 9 (1991), 33-38 and 10 (1992), 82-86, as also to Ch. Clipper's article in Forschung'. Mitteilungen der DEG, 4/91 (1991), 4-7. Inquiries, especially about individual titles and manuscripts, should be directed either to in 1970 and since then extended five times (1975, 1982, 1986, 1990 and 1993). In accordance with it, the negative film, the "master copy", and one of the two positive copies made from it remain with the Nepalese -- and are now stored in the Microsilin House behind the main building of the National Archives in Kathmandu - while the second positive copy which is the property of the German Oriental Society is passed on by it as perinanenoan to the State Library in Berlin ("Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preussischer Kullurbesitz., Orientableilung"). Some years ago (1987) another section of the NGMPP was established at the Institute for llistory and Culture of India and Tibel ("Instiliit liir Kultur und Geschichte Indiens und Tibets") at the University of llamburg, where a "Preliminary List of Manuscripts and Xylographs Microfilmed by the NGMPP" is being compiled with the help of computers and special software, kindly developed by my colleague Ronald E. Emmerick; this list is, however, mainly based on the so-called index cards for each and every item microfilmed, and not on the MSS or the microfilms themselves. (The preparation or descriptive catalogues of the whole material will be the purpose of a follow-up project which can lor obvious reasons only be undertaken when the NGMPP has completed its work). It is planned to publish the "Preliminary List ..." within a year after the microfilming work has been completed in Nepal to make this vast amount of information, the first of its kind, available to scholars as soon as possible. A report on the first 15 years of the NGMPP's activities, wrillen in German, was published in ZDMG 136 (1986), *2*_*14*; in addition, each issue of this journal from 1986 onwards contains a brief report about the NGMPP as well as the NRC. An updated, though also not very detailed report will form part of a book which the Commillee ("Vorstand") of the German Oriental Society will publish later this year, on the occasion of the Society's 150th anniversary, under the title "Die Deutsche Morgenlandische Gesellsliaft. Seit 1845 der Erforschung der Sprachen und Kulturen Asiens und Afrikas und dem Verstehen des Fremden verpNichtet". It is true that a detailed report on the NGMPP in English is overdue, and in fact I have been working on one for quite some time now; but I decided to ignore even the occasion of the project completing 25 years of activity in 1995, because the idea is to continue the work, if at all possible, for five more years. To wait until 2001 would allow me to give a report which is not only comprehensive, but also complete at least as regards the duration - and to try lo corupile a more comprehensive bibliography of the publications in which material provided by the Bibliothcksdirektor Dr. II.-0). Feistel Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - PR Orientabteilung Postdamer Str. 33 D-10785 Berlin Tel. 030-266 2489 Fax 030-264 5955 or to the undersigned, Institut fiir Kultur und Geschichte Indiens und Tibets Neue Rabenstrasse 3 D-20354 llamburg Tel. 040-4123 3385 Fax 040-4123-6267 But inquiries can, of course, also be made on the spot, so lo say, i.e. in Kathmandu itself in the National Archives, Ramshahpath, or in the Nepal Research Centre, New Baneshwar (behind Hotel Everest), or, last but by no means least, in the State Library, Berlin.