A new exhibition at Kathmandu Art Gallery is shedding light on how Nepal gradually took shape on the world’s maps. Titled Imaging South Asia: Nepal in the Making, the show opened at Baber Mahal Revisited and brings together a rare selection of nineteenth-century maps from the private collection of the Rajbhandari family.
The exhibition focuses on maps produced during the colonial era, many of them created under institutions linked to the East India Company and later British administrations in South Asia. These maps were not simply geographic records. They were tools used for military strategy, taxation, trade routes and territorial control.
Through these works, visitors can see how the Himalayan region was studied and documented from a distance. Mountain ranges, rivers and high passes were carefully measured and marked, turning a complex landscape into something that could be calculated and governed. Techniques such as hill shading, hachuring and the introduction of latitude and longitude grids show how mapping evolved into a systematic science.
The display encourages viewers to think of maps as more than static images. They are presented as historical documents that influenced how borders were drawn and how Nepal came to be understood as a defined territory. The collection captures a time when the idea of a modern nation was still forming.
By revisiting these early representations, the exhibition offers insight into how knowledge, power and geography intersected in shaping the Himalayan region.
Imaging South Asia: Nepal in the Making runs until March 17 at Kathmandu Art Gallery, Baber Mahal Revisited. The exhibition is open daily from 11 am to 5 pm, and entry is free.
