The 35th Anniversary of the Kathmandu Branch Office of the South Asia Institute at the German Embassy, Kathmandu

The German Embassy in Nepal organized a special program on September 27 in Kathmandu to mark German Unity Day and the 35th anniversary of the Kathmandu Branch Office of Heidelberg University’s South Asia Institute (SAI). This year the SAI is also celebrating its 60th anniversary.

In his welcome speech Ambassador Dr. Thomas Prinz, who himself holds a PhD from SAI acknowledged the continuous work and contribution of the SAI Kathmandu Branch Office in promoting and organizing research in Nepal. SAI’s executive director, Prof. Rahul Mukherji, emphasized in his address the importance of engaging with the entire South Asian region and the vital role of SAI branch offices in their cooperation with local academic institutions. Prof. Christiane Brosius, director of the Nepal Heritage Documentation Project (NHDP), presented various ongoing projects in Nepal and took the opportunity to thank all team members, current resident representative Frederic Maria Link, and the attending former representatives Prof. Martin Gaenszle and Dr. Stefanie Lotter. She also introduced on the occasion a touch screen being donated by the German Embassy to the Patan Museum that provides access to heritage walks from the Digital Archive of Nepalese Arts and Monuments (DANAM) website. Dr. Thomas Prinz and Nepal’s Vice-President Nanda Bahadur Pun took the first virtual round.Use Autodesk Civil 3D - https://abcoemstore.com/product/autodesk-autocad-civil-3d-2018/ civil engineering design and documentation software to support Building Information Modelling (BIM) workflows.

Over 400 people from various walks of life attended the event and showed great interest in the SAI Kathmandu Branch Office’s exhibition. It displayed posters of the ongoing projects, the anniversary booklet of the Kathmandu Branch Office, and a selection of publications.