KATHMANDU

The Pasa Pucha Guthi of the UK released an exhibition of ‘Digital Museum of Nepal in Minecraft’ recently.

According to a press statement released by the Guthi, the design of the digital museum was made by 14 kids of Nepali origin living in different parts of the world, within a span of four weeks. They are Palistha Maharjan, Shaylee Dangol, Ava, Yash Raj Bhandari, Alisha Darshandhari, Ava Darshandhari, Pratyush Shrestha, Dipankar Manhandar, Amol Neupane, Adarsha Dahal, Sanyojan Shrestha, Raessa Rajbhandari, Arav Shrestha, and Ananya Shrestha.The virtual museum is hosted in the multiplayer server of the game located at minecraft.ppguk.scalacubes.org. The project titled “Nepal Minecraft Museum'' started on 24 February and concluded on 3 April.

The virtual Nepali Museum is made using thousands of tiny square blocks and consists two-floor housing with Nepali items like Halo, Kodalo, Hasiya, Khukuri, Karuwa, Tepah, Sinha-moo, Sarangi, and Madal among many other household farming, musical, religious items and even architectures like temples, stupas, traditional drinking fountain which can be found in many places of Nepal.

The team of builders in the creative game, who are aged around eight to ten years old, were awarded a medal each for their work in creating the virtual Nepali Museum after following the references provided by the Guthi.

Pranisha Shakya, general secretary of the Guthi, launched the museum at an event attended by the participating kids and their parents. On the occasion, Shakya expressed that the virtual Nepali museum could help the kids to learn about Nepal's cultural heritages during the lockdowns and make use of their time. In addition, the participating kids also shared their experiences of working at the various projects of the virtual museum inside the game.

Minecraft is a sandbox game developed by Mojang in 2011 that allows a player to build 3D worlds using various types of blocks and items which can be gathered and crafted in the game. The video game has since amassed over 126 million active players worldwide which is growing everyday. So far, the game has been a huge platform for young kids to make friends from around the world while also expanding their creativity.