<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181124/636be2f09c7e80680e083ed8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="533"/><figcaption>All photos: DOUG BINGHAM/US EMBASSY NEPAL FACEBOOK PAGE</figcaption></figure>Pokhara is arguably the most well-known and popular destination for international and domestic tourists alike. Nestled beneath the towering Himalayas, the scenic valley is the base point for trekkers and climbers looking to take on the Annapurna circuit, or the casual traveller seeking to spend time relaxing near the Phewa lake and revel in the vibrant nightlife. As such, Pokhara gets over a million tourists every year.Tourism business operators in the city were hoping for a boom of visitors with Visit Nepal 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/survive-2020-revive-in-2021-and-thrive-in-2022/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">brought tourism to a standstill</a> as much of the world hunkered down at home. However, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/pokhara-tourism-lifted-by-nepali-footfalls/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">domestic visitors have begun to compensate</a> for the absence of foreign tourists in Nepal's foremost destination, flocking to the city during the festival season in October-November.Even so, the streets and shops of Pokhara are not busy this year, bringing to mind how the tiny city bustling with tourists might have looked a few decades ago.  These photos, taken between 1962-1963 by Doug Bingham--a US peace Corps volunteer who taught mathematics at Prithivi Narayan Campus--show the timeless appeal of Pokhara’s sights, culture, and its people.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181124/636be2f29c7e80680e083ed9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="526"><figcaption>Pokhara Airport</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181124/636be2f59c7e80680e083edajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="837"><figcaption>Doug Bingham teaches maths to his students at Prithivi Narayan Campus.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181124/636be2f89c7e80680e083edbjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="640"><figcaption>Locals at a welcome program organised for the arrival of King Mahendra.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181124/636be2fb9c7e80680e083edcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="960"><figcaption>Kahun Danda</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181124/636be2fd9c7e80680e083eddjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="640"><figcaption>A view of the mountains from Mahendra Pul tole.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181124/636be3009c7e80680e083edejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="640"><figcaption>Locals walk by Pokhara's main market.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181124/636be3039c7e80680e083edfjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="642"><figcaption>The main building of Prithivi Narayan Campus, founded in 1960.</figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109181124/636be3059c7e80680e083ee0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="640"><figcaption>A student performs in a programme at Prithivi Narayan Campus.</figcaption></figure>

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Pokhara, six decades ago

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141144/636baf039c7e80680e07802ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1329" height="928"/><figcaption>King George V with Prime Minister Chandra Shumshere Rana with a tiger trophy in Chitwan in 1911. Sotheby’s</figcaption></figure>Archiving should be a state responsibility, and Nepal does have a National Archive. But a Nepali working in the Gulf has shown how much can be achieved by just one individual with a passion for history.No one can find the original of the 1816 Sugauli Treaty anywhere. Important historical documents, agreements with Tibet, China and British India are also missing. Many of them probably went up when Singha Darbar caught fire in 1973.Which is why <a href="https://twitter.com/SantoshKhaderi">Santosh Khaderi</a> (pictured below) has taken it upon himself to archive as much as possible of official records, early photographs, letters and ephemera from Nepali history as he can. What started out as a hobby, has now become an important contribution to archiving in Nepal for this 28-year-old Dang native and college dropout.He has been in Abu Dhabi for the past six years, working night shifts. He found so much factually incorrect news about Nepal that he started collecting digital records of the country’s past wherever he could find them on the Internet. Working 6-7 hours during the day, Khaderi has built up a collection that he also shares widely through his Twitter account and with regular well-researched articles in Annapurna Post.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141144/636baf069c7e80680e07802bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="640" height="518"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141144/636baf099c7e80680e07802cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="598" height="474">It all started in 2016, as Nepal was reeling from the aftermath of the earthquake and the Indian Blockade. Khaderi found so many falsehoods and half-truths in media reports that he gave himself the mission to preserve history. Once, while watching Indian news channels he came across a documentary about Prime Minister PV Narsimha Rao which delved into archives to tell his story.“The hour-long episode was so in-depth and based on historical documents and records, that I wondered why a Nepali could not make a similar documentary about B P Koirala,” Khaderi said in a phone interview from the UAE.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141144/636baf0b9c7e80680e07802djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="627" height="806"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>This is why, while carrying on his usual work of collecting historical records, he started zooming in on everything he could find on BP, including archival film footage of his funeral procession in Kathmandu in 1984, letters and other documents.“Being away from Nepal has made me value my homeland even more, and to stay in touch while being relevant to my roots and upbringing,” Khaderi says. “In addition, it gives me the opportunity to correct historical inaccuracies, bending of facts, or deliberate lies.”Indeed, his social media posts do not carry that angry tone common to many these days who all bristle with strong opinion about everything. He is not provocatively controversial, he just wants to lay out historical facts based on documents.Khaderi says it is thanks to the corpus of knowledge on the searchable Internet that he can do this work. Without the net it would be immensely complicated since the documents, records, news clips and film footage are scattered around the world.“It’s all there on the net, you just have to know how to search for it,” he says. “But I am limited to material that is in the public domain, I don’t have the money to pay for other content.”Among the rare items in his collection are Rana-era photos, letters written by the palace in Kathmandu to the British in India about the use of Simara airport during World War II, rare clips of Edward VIII, then Prince of Wales with Chandra Shumshere Rana during a hunting trip in Chitwan in 1921, or Tribhuvan’s funeral in Switzerland.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141144/636baf0d9c7e80680e07802ejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3715" height="3253"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Khaderi’s archive so far has 600 videos, 700 books and newspaper clips, numerous government letters, even invitation cards from Mohan Shumshere for a diplomatic reception at the Nepal Embassy at Barakhamba Road in New Delhi in 1950.Khaderi has dug up news clips from 100 years ago to piece together Bishnu Shumshere Rana’s affair with a Hollywood dancer, and his eventual death in the Bahamas. What he does not have are photographs of Bishnu Shumshere’s body arriving in Banaras for cremation, which are in the Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya archives in Kathmandu.“It is disappointing that our country does not have any papers related to the Kalapani border issues and whatever news has been printed is just mudslinging between two governments, there are few fact-based statements,” he says.He has also dug up a 27-page booklet on Mohan Shumshere Rana that deals with the 1950 Indo-Nepal Treaty with the newly-independent India. Nepal’s claim to Kalapani is mentioned there too.“I believe that history is now more important than ever, so it is absolutely important for us to have historical evidence from the past. Nepal is at its weakest point now because we never cared about archives as they had vested interest somewhere else,” Khaderi says.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141144/636baf119c7e80680e07802fjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="2881"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Among Khaderi’s archives is correspondence between Indian Ambassador and Prime Minister Nehru in 1950 in which he cites the Royal Nepal Army’s lack of preparedness to deal with external threats. Within two years of Prime Minister Matrika Prasad Koirala’s visit to India in 1952, Indian military communication units were placed at 17 points along the India-Nepal border.Khaderi has also dug up reports filed by Indian military about patrols to Kalapani in 1959 that prove that the Indian Army already had bases there. China had just annexed Tibet, the Dalai Lama had fled to India, and India and China were soon to go to war. But these documents prove that the Indian bases in Kalapani were not allowed there during or after the war, but perhaps as long before as 1956.“Our country and the government has a handful of shortcomings, but the biggest shortcoming is the lack of archives,” Khaderi says. “these should be digitised, stored, and even made public. Hardcopy files can be destroyed, misplaced or even disappear.”Khaderi says he went to the UAE for financial reasons, but he is itching to get back to Nepal where he wants to set up and maintain a historical archive, and what he has collected so far will be the starting point.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109141144/636baf149c7e80680e078030jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1117" height="896"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>

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Adventures of a lone archivist

<img width="1620" height="1078" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b119c7e80680e06b27ajpeg.jpg" alt=""/><img width="1622" height="1084" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b149c7e80680e06b27bjpeg.jpg" alt="">The famous photograph of porters struggling to carry an automobile down from Chitlang Pass into Kathmandu during the Rana period. Original: Unknown/Madan Puraskar PustakalayaPassing time scouring the web in search of inspiration, graphic designer Bhushan Shilpakar stumbled across an open source software called ‘Deoldify’. True to its name, the software rendered old black and white photos into colour.The steps were fairly simple: the old prints had to be scanned, uploaded into the software which then simply worked its magic. Filling in the colour and texture to faces, clothing and landscapes to faded old sepia images restored their vibrancy and immediacy.Thrilled by the outcome, Shilpakar dusted off old family albums at home and began to deoldify photographs. Family members were excited that their photographic memorabilia had suddenly come alive.“The colours revealed to the eye things hidden in black and white. I found many old photographs were enhanced through this process,” Shilpakar says.What was originally a way to pass the time during the lockdown took on a new purpose as Shilpakar went into the digitsed archives of Nepal Picture Library and Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya and started colourising them.  <img width="640" height="488" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b189c7e80680e06b27cjpeg.jpg" alt=""><img width="640" height="488" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b1b9c7e80680e06b27djpeg.jpg" alt="">One of the earliest photographs taken in Nepal. King Surendra with courtiers and a visiting British dignitary 150 years ago. Photo: Clarence Comyn Taylor / Madan Puraskar PustakalayaIt was not until the 1950s that the first colour photographs were introduced to Nepal, and even then the films had to be taken down to Calcutta to process and print. A debate ensued between those who felt black and white was artistic, and many who found photographs in full colour much more accurate and realistic. With the advent of digital editing and mobile photography, that argument is obsolete. However, there is now a move worldwide to breathe new life to archival black-and-white photography -- and even motion pictures of early cinema by colourising them. With minimum amount of work, Shilpakar managed to turn old pictures, including one of the oldest photographs in Nepal of King Surendra with a British dignitary taken 150 years ago by Clarence Comyn Taylor, a solider in the East India Company.There are more recent portraits of King Mahendra and Queen Ratna, B P Koirala giving a speech ahead of the 1980 referendum, the writer Parijat, and group portraits of Newa families. Shilpakar also turned into colour the black and white prints of American photographer Kevin Bubriski taken in the 1970s. Nervously, Shilpakar emailed some of these renderings to Bubriski, and says he was much relieved when Bubriski replied that he liked them.Many value the aesthetics of black and white photography, and even regard deoldifying as disrespectful to the originals, others find this process revives old photographs, erases the passage of time, and brings viewers much closer to the era in which they were taken.  <figure><img width="1024" height="1385" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b1e9c7e80680e06b27ejpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Sri 3 Maharaja Chandra Shumsher. Photo: Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya</figcaption></figure><img width="640" height="491" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b219c7e80680e06b27fjpeg.jpg" alt=""><img width="640" height="492" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b249c7e80680e06b280jpeg.jpg" alt="">The Maskey clan poses for a group photograph at Gujeswari in 1927. Photo: Narendra Lal Maskey Collection / Nepal Picture Library <img width="640" height="491" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b269c7e80680e06b281jpeg.jpg" alt=""><img width="640" height="490" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b299c7e80680e06b282jpeg.jpg" alt="">Women and children from the Kaji Narayan Bhakta Mathema household at Om Bahal in 1930.  Original: Mukunda Bahadur Shrestha / Nepal Picture Library <figure><img width="1618" height="1078" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b2c9c7e80680e06b283jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Archive photograph of a Nepali family in the mountains. Original: Unknown/Madan Puraskar</figcaption></figure><figure><img width="1614" height="1180" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b2f9c7e80680e06b284jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>King Mahendra and Queen Ratna in 1960. Original: Unknown / Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya</figcaption></figure><figure><img width="790" height="905" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b339c7e80680e06b285jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Kathmandu city. Photo: Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya</figcaption></figure><figure><img width="790" height="889" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b359c7e80680e06b286jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Swayambhunath temple. Photo: Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya</figcaption></figure><img width="640" height="633" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b389c7e80680e06b287jpeg.jpg" alt=""><img width="640" height="632" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b3b9c7e80680e06b288jpeg.jpg" alt="">Kathmandu Valley looking northwest from Dharara Tower in the 1960s with Darbar Square and Swayambhu. Original: Mukunda Bahadur Shrestha Collection / Nepal Picture Library <figure><img width="1150" height="798" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b3e9c7e80680e06b289jpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Photograph with autograph of the writer Parijat in the 1960s. Original: Unknown / Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya</figcaption></figure><figure><img width="1024" height="1355" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b409c7e80680e06b28ajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> Government officials to welcome Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai, 1966. Photo: Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya</figcaption></figure><img width="640" height="495" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b439c7e80680e06b28bjpeg.jpg" alt=""><img width="640" height="500" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b469c7e80680e06b28cjpeg.jpg" alt="">A shaman in Yarsa village of Nuwakot in 1974. Original: Kevin Bubriski <figure><img width="1622" height="1220" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b499c7e80680e06b28djpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Shaman in Gosainkunda cca 1974. Original: Kevin Bubriski</figcaption></figure><figure><img width="640" height="854" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b4c9c7e80680e06b28ejpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption>Indra Jatra in 1978. Photo: Kevin Bubriski</figcaption></figure><img width="640" height="421" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b4f9c7e80680e06b28fjpeg.jpg" alt=""><img width="640" height="423" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b539c7e80680e06b290jpeg.jpg" alt=""><img width="2608" height="1430" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b569c7e80680e06b291jpeg.jpg" alt="">BP Koirala giving a speech at Khula Manch in 1980. Original: Unknown / Madam Puraskar PustakalayaBhushan Shilpakar Photo: Niranjan Kunwar<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121112/636b8b599c7e80680e06b292jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="355" height="208">

Making Nepal’s history colourful

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Pokhara, six decades ago

Adventures of a lone archivist

Making Nepal’s history colourful