A living archive, kept by the family, for the family.
Nepal Bansawali is a digital form of record that was published by Purna Prasad Nepal Yatri in 2045 B.S.
From palm-leaf to pixel
The Nepal family descends from a single patriarch, Jayavidhyadhar Pandit, born in Seridhuska Jumla and settled in Dailekh, Veri Zone. From then on, the heads of households kept a written record of each birth, marriage, and death — first on palm-leaf folios bound with cotton thread, later in ledgers, eventually in typed photocopies passed between cousins by post.
By 2066 BS the record had grown unwieldy. A young engineer in the Nineteenth generation — Amit K Nepal, who grew up tracing his lineage with his father's finger on the old folios — began digitizing the archive. What started as a spreadsheet became a website, and then the living archive you see today.
Every record is verified by at least one relative. Every photograph is attributed. Every story is credited to its source. The archive belongs to the family, not to any one custodian.
manuscript folios, c.1890
preserved at Madi Pokharathok shrine
How we keep it
Every new record needs a sponsor — a family member already in the archive who vouches for the information.
Photos, stories and documents carry the name of who contributed them and when. Nothing is anonymous.
The archive is maintained by a volunteer trust in Tansen. It will never carry ads, sell data, or require payment.
Custodians
A rotating council of four family members maintains the archive. Custodians serve three-year terms.
