Nepal, Oct. 25 -- eritage expert Rajan Khatiwoda in a recent report in this paper, described how families along the Trisuli asked whether an effigy woven from sacred grass could be used in funeral rites when the bodies of their loved ones could not be recovered.

That detail captures what disasters take beyond buildings. When a temple, shrine, or cremation site disappears, so do places where people have worshipped, mourned, and gathered for generations. Rebuilding a structure may be possible, recovering the knowledge attached to it is another matter.

The Nepal Heritage Documentation Project (NHDP) of Heidelberg University has been listing monuments and living traditions across Nepal for the past eight years. Along the Trisuli corridor it...