Kathmandu, Nepal – Dressed in an orange kurta (loose collarless tunic) and a matching Nepali dhaka waistcoat, Lalima Shrestha pulls a brown plastic chair closer to a makeshift table made from a table tennis board. Above, there’s a banner for “Nepal Lipi Guthi” (Institute of Nepal Epigraphy) in a calligraphic script known as Ranjana Lipi, and a poster of the Ranjana alphabet.
Shrestha is here at the open-air Narayani Square in Dhulikhel, a municipality 30km (18 miles) southwest of Nepal’s capital city, Kathmandu, to demonstrate the ancient art of Ranjana calligraphy. She is a member of Callijatra, one of two local organisations working to preserve and promote ancient scripts of Nepal – before they are forgotten.
