HMML's project at the Āśā Archives (Āśā Saphūkuthi), in partnership with the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at the University of Hamburg, digitizes and makes accessible Buddhist and Hindu manuscripts from one of the largest public archives held by a non-profit, community-based organization in Nepal. The collection includes pothi-style palm-leaf and paper manuscripts, accordion books, ritual handbooks, and codices containing a variety of important texts on Hinduism and Buddhism, poetics, astronomy, astrology, and medicine, written in Sanskrit, Newari, Nepali, and a mix of these languages. The bulk of the Āśā Archives' early collection (over 7,000 manuscripts) dates to the 15th–19th centuries. HMML's partnership currently focuses on digitizing the manuscripts of the ‘new collection’ items dating from the 17th to the 20th centuries. The cleaning, inventorying, cataloging, digitization, and archival storage that the CSMC partnership provides with local community members will allow these materials to be preserved and shared, as well as create awareness for the need of preservation of manuscripts and artefacts in Nepal. The collection is an important part of Nepalese history and culture but also, more broadly, of significance to Central Asian and South Asian culture. HMML is actively pursuing other projects in Nepal and throughout South Asia.

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