A living record of Himalayan-Gangetic rural life.
Everything The Dehat produces goes into an open archive, free to anyone, anywhere, and searchable by language, region, community, theme and time. Knowledge that belongs to communities is kept with their consent and credited to them.
Seven collections, one memory.
Oral History Archive
Life stories and recorded conversations, with transcriptions in the original language and translations into Nepali and English.
Collecting02Language Archive
Recordings, wordlists, grammars and oral texts in Nepal's languages, with priority for the endangered.
Collecting03Music Archive
Field recordings of folk and traditional music, from Bhojpuri biraha to Tamang selo and Sakela songs.
Collecting04Visual Archive
Photographs, documentary film and field imagery from across the region.
Collecting05Research Repository
Working papers, policy briefs and the annual State of Rural Nepal report.
Collecting06Festival and Ritual Archive
Dates, descriptions, recordings and community explanations of festivals and rituals.
Collecting07Traditional Knowledge
Agricultural, ecological and medicinal knowledge, verified with the communities who hold it.
CollectingLatest additions
The archive is being built.
Our first oral histories, recordings and research papers will appear here as fieldwork begins.
Open, credited, community-owned.
- Open access: free to read, listen to and cite, for anyone, anywhere.
- Consent first: nothing is archived without the agreement of the people and communities it comes from.
- Credit always: every item names its knowledge holders, speakers, singers and collectors.
- Original language kept: recordings and texts stay in their own language, with translations alongside.
Help us remember.
Do you hold old recordings, songs, letters, photographs or family histories from the dehat? We would be honoured to help preserve them. Write to [email protected].
Contribute to the archive