Kathmandu:

It was 100 years ago that an avid reader visited Britain with his father and was fascinated by the country’s library and museum system. Returning to his homeland inspired, he was urged to develop his own private library, known as the Kaiser Library.

The library was developed in a building that Kaiser Shumsher’s father, the erstwhile Rana Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher, gifted to him. The personal library, which went

on to acquire a good reputation in the whole of Asia, was then accessible only to his family members, and noted Nepali and foreign scholars.

The library was, however, handed over to the government in 1968 as per Kaiser Shumsher’s ‘untold’ wish before he died of cerebral haemorrhage in 1964 and also because the family found the library difficult to maintain.

Recalling the days when it was still a personal library, Kaiser Shumsher’s son Lok Bhakta Rana shares, “He had read all the books and manuscripts — he had collected — at least once. The library also did not have any librarian or a catalogue of the books. So he himself remembered the names of all the books, their contents and where he kept them. Many people associated with him have passed away and some are still alive, but they all remarked on his astonishing memory.”

According to him, after Kaiser Shumsher died, the doctors who had come from America to treat him also wanted to take his brain to American to research on his extraordinary memory power. “But due to religious reasons, we didn’t handover it,” says Rana, who is a lawyer by profession.

Kaiser Shumsher had a special taste for astrology. “He could predict future by both the eastern and the western methods,” Rana says.

Located at the heart of the busy Kathmandu Valley, yet serene enough inside to offer a good reading experience, the library today is not just a haven for thousands of books and valuable manuscripts, but also for historically important paintings, photos and decorations, which also makes it a museum of a sort. While there were 28,000 books in the library when handed over to the government, it today boasts of a collection of 55,000 books, documents, periodicals and manuscripts.

“What the library scores over other libraries is its collection of rare books and documents,” says Kashinath Tamot, a Reader at the Department of Nepal Bhasa, Tribhuvan University, who is well acquainted to the library. No wonder the place is a very good destination for researchers from home and abroad.

Highlighting the importance, the present oldest employee at the library Krishna Prasad Ghimire adds, “Before 1994, many foreign researchers used to come, whose number sharply declined during the insurgency. However, their numbers, as well as the number of students, is rising these days.” According to chief librarian Bhola Kumar Shrestha, presently around 100 students visit the library every day.

“The manuscripts, books, documents and other resources available at the Kaiser Library have played an important role in making a more authentic Nepali history. After the hand over, the library also helped general people develop a reading culture,” explains Tamot.

However, the library also has often faced criticism for taking less care to preserve the important possessions. Shrestha, also the president of Nepal Library Association, responds, “Not all people come here with correct intentions. We now have CCTV in place to help us catch any wrongdoings. We are also planning to digitalise the images.”

The government also seems supportive in their mission. Minister for Education and Sports, Pradip Nepal, shares, “The way I see it, Kaiser library is a very beautiful and superior library in South Asia. In the past, there was less investment on it, so some of the important works were in a degraded state. After I felt the problem, I thought digitalisation of the manuscripts and photos would be a good step towards their preservation, and we have already started the process to do that. We are also working towards moving the Ministry inside the Singha Durbar and bringing Nepal National Library inside the Kaiser Library building. This way the library would find more space to expand and its charm would also be preserved.”

One of the most important public library in the country reaching its centenary, it goes without saying every staff is very excited. “We are also taking out a souvenir of the library and are also hoping that a postal stamp for the library will be issued. We will also develop a children’s unit and provide Internet facility to visitors soon,” says Shrestha.

Well, let us hope the historical library goes on improving and preserving its precious possessions better.