national museum of nepal

The National Museum of Nepal was established in 1928AD. It was initially structured to act as an arsenal museum. The building itself is very old and was constructed in the early 19th century. The initial name of this museum was "the stone house of arms and ammunitions". It was opened as a public museum in the year 1938 and was christened The National Museum of Nepal only in year 1967. Previous to that, only foreign scholars and invitees or guests of the Ranas were allowed to have a look of these wonderful collections. The museum has separate galleries dedicated to statues, paintings, murals, coins and weapons.

Among these, the most visited is the weapon gallery. This gallery has a very magnificent collection of weapons that range from the Licchhavis era to the British resistance period. Among others, it contains various types of Nepalese swords that are called Khukri in the local language. It also contains various types of guns that range from the sultanate era Turkish long barrel to the Royal Enfield built British guns. The coins segment is also very popular. The oldest coin on display dates back to 12th century. There are separate coins that were issued by the warring families of Shahs and Ranas.

The painting and mural section is not that impressive. Though there are some good medieval collections of Murals that have been excavated from the Tarai regions. These murals have deep Mauryan and Licchhavis influence. There are various statues too that have been excavated from the various parts of the kingdom. The ones from the era of the Buddhist dominance are the most impressive. Though very small proportion of these statues is in complete shape, efforts have been made to stop further corrosions. These efforts are worth appreciation because these have been undertaken under extreme financial constrains.