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Precious manuscripts from Nepal from the 13th to the 20th century, including official documents and personal notes, are returning to their country of origin. A private collector had left the over 800 items for this purpose to the Indologist Prof. Dr Axel Michaels, senior professor at the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University. Subsequently, the valuable stocks – in particular of palm-leaf scrolls – were expertly conserved, digitized by Heidelberg University Library and, in the context of a research project, scientifically cataloged. Now the collection will be handed over to the Republic of Nepal at a ceremony on 24 April.
Press Release
Heidelberg, 22 April 2026
Return of Precious Manuscripts
Private collection with historical documents to be handed over to the Nepali government
Precious manuscripts from Nepal from the 13th to the 20th century, including official documents and personal notes, are returning to their country of origin. A private collector from Germany had left the over 800 items for this purpose to the Indologist and religious studies scholar Prof. Dr Axel Michaels, senior professor at the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University. Subsequently, the valuable stocks – in particular of palm-leaf scrolls – were expertly conserved, digitized by Heidelberg University Library and, in the context of a research project led by Prof. Michaels, scientifically cataloged. Now the collection will be handed over to the Republic of Nepal. Sagar Phuyal, chargé d’affaires of the embassy of Nepal in Berlin, will sign the relevant agreement on behalf of the Nepal government at a ceremony on 24 April 2026.
Known as the Walter Rindfleisch collection, the items comprise 460 highly fragile palm-leaf scrolls, including specimens from the 13th century and hence from the earliest recorded manuscript tradition of Nepal. “It is probably the largest collection of Nepali palm-leaf scrolls outside the country, which means it is of great cultural value,” underlines Axel Michaels, who has been teaching and conducting research at Heidelberg University since 1996. Since 2014 he has also headed the research project “Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Pre-modern Nepal”, which is based at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. The collection’s stock is supplemented by royal documents, court records, Sanscrit manuscripts – for example, a treatise on the taming of wild elephants – as well as personal testimonials from several centuries. Last but not least, they include diaries and travel books of Nepali rulers; they contain numerous as yet unpublished letters, photographs and documents.
When the collection reached Prof. Michaels, there was hardly any reliable information available about how the documents had been acquired and taken out of the country. The original collector, Walter Rindfleisch, had died in 2002 and no formal purchase or export documents were found. “It was the express wish of the collector that the manuscripts be returned to Nepal. Before we could imagine their repatriation, however,” says Prof. Michaels, “the material − in some cases fragile − had to be protected through conservation measures.”
Many items in the collection were acutely endangered due to their age alone. Mold, remnants of glue, and infestation by insects made for additional damage. This particularly applied to the precious palm-leaf scrolls. Consequently, every single scroll was opened, cleaned under glass with chemical materials, and then stabilized. Finally, the whole of the material was digitized and indexed with metadata. “The digitization is intended to enable worldwide access so that the resources can become part of a global cultural memory. By physically returning them we want, at the same time, to make historical responsibility visible and effective,” Prof. Michaels explains.
Note for newsrooms:
Besides Prof. Michaels, speakers at the signing of the agreement with Sagar Phuyal will, among others, include Prof. Dr Marc-Philippe Weller, Vice-Rector for International Affairs and Diversity of Heidelberg University. The venue on 24 April is the main lecture hall of the Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS), Voßstraße 2. The event starts at 11 a.m. Media are invited to report. If planning to attend, they need to register by email to presse@rektorat.uni-heidelberg.de.
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Palm leaf documents in a conservation box
Source: Manik Bajracharya
Copyright: Manik Bajracharya
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