Mustang Archives. Analysis of Handwritten Documents via the Study of Papermaking Traditions in Nepal

Paperback, 338 pages, Size:210 x 297 mm, Illustrations:178 col., 4 tables b/w., 5 maps b/w, Language: English. ISBN 9782503585345. Summary The Mustang Archives explores locally produced documents from Mustang, Nepal, mostly dated to the year within the last two centuries. The archives are from five communities: Geling, Lubrak, Jharkot, Upper Tshognam and Lower Tshognam. The documents - some from private households, others the communal property of villages - were preserved in wooden or metal boxes, baskets or bags as a loose assemblage of folded sheets of paper. They are of several different kinds, including contracts, petitions, edicts, letters, dispute resolutions, tax records and community regulations. Besides being an important source of information for the reconstruction of Mustang's social history, are an extremely valuable source of knowledge about local paper- and book-production. It is not only their content but their material that provides information essential to tracing their past history, clarifying, among other things, the economic factors that shaped their production. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Chapter 1. Methods: A cross-disciplinary approach Chapter 2. A brief history of Mustang and its religious environment. Chapter 3. Local archives under study: histories and geographical locations. Chapter 4. Archival documents as a part of the tangible Cultural Heritage of Mustang. Chapter 5. Codicological study of the documents. Chapter 6. Tibetan papermaking traditions in Nepal: A transfer of technological knowledge in Central Asian history. Chapter 7. Paper of Mustang: A history from scratch. Appendix 1. Template for the descriptions of documents. Appendix 2. Document content summaries with basic codicological descriptions. Appendix 3. Summaries of interviews with papermakers, craftsmen and traders. (web lines with interviews itself)