Museums of Nepal: Complete Directory & Interactive Map

Nepal has more than 50 museums open to the public, according to the Department of Archaeology (Puratatva Bibhag) under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. They range from a handful of large, government-run national institutions to dozens of small community, ethnographic and private thematic museums scattered from the Tarai to the high Himalaya. Because no single authoritative census counts every gallery, the exact total shifts as small local and university museums open and close; this directory compiles the museums recognised by the Department of Archaeology, the Nepal Museum Association and the Nepal Tourism Board.

Governance is mixed. A core group of national museums is run directly by the Department of Archaeology, including the National Museum at Chhauni, the National Numismatic Museum, the National Ethnographic Museum, the Hanumandhoka Palace Museum and the regional museums in Pokhara, Gorkha, Dhankuta and Surkhet. Others are run by autonomous bodies or dedicated trusts: the Narayanhiti Palace Museum has its own management office, the Nepali Army runs the military museum at Chhauni, Nepal Rastra Bank runs its money museum, and the Nepal Mountaineering Association runs the International Mountain Museum in Pokhara.

The Nepal Museum Association (NMA), a non-profit founded to protect and promote the country's museums, maintains a 'Known Museums of Nepal' directory and provides technical guidance to member institutions. Alongside the Department of Archaeology and the Nepal Tourism Board's 'Museums in Nepal' listings, it is the closest thing Nepal has to an official museum register. Many university, provincial and community museums fall outside all three lists, which is why local counts of 'museums in Nepal' vary.

Kathmandu Valley holds the densest concentration of museums in Nepal, spread across the three historic cities of Kathmandu, Lalitpur (Patan) and Bhaktapur. The anchor institution is the National Museum of Nepal at Chhauni, established in 1928 on the road to Swayambhu and managed by the Department of Archaeology since 1962. Originally an arsenal (Chhauni Silkhana, the 'stone house of arms'), it houses history, art, natural history and numismatic galleries and remains the country's largest museum. Adjacent to it sit the National Numismatic Museum and the Nepali Army (military) museum, also at Chhauni.

Three of the valley's museums occupy the old royal palaces on the UNESCO World Heritage Durbar Squares. The Hanumandhoka Palace Museum sits inside Kathmandu Durbar Square and includes the Tribhuvan, Mahendra and Birendra memorial galleries. The Patan Museum, inaugurated in 1997 inside a restored Malla-era courtyard of Patan Durbar in Lalitpur, is widely regarded as one of South Asia's finest museums of sacred bronze and repousse art. In Bhaktapur Durbar Square, the National Art Museum (National Art Gallery) displays paubha scroll paintings, wood and stone sculpture.

Kathmandu also holds the Narayanhiti Palace Museum near Thamel, created in 2008 from the former royal palace after Nepal became a republic and inaugurated by then Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala on 15 June 2008. The city's specialist museums include the Natural History Museum of Nepal at Swayambhu (established 1975), the National Ethnographic Museum at Bhrikutimandap, the Nepal Rastra Bank money museum at Thapathali, the Nepal Police Museum at Naxal, the Taragaon Museum at Boudha (focused on modern architecture and photography of the valley), and the Nepali Folk Musical Instrument Museum (Nepal Lok Baja Sangrahalaya) at Tripureshwor.

Pokhara is Nepal's second museum hub and the base for its mountain-themed collections. The International Mountain Museum (IMM), run by the Nepal Mountaineering Association, is the flagship: its foundation stone was laid in 1995, it opened softly in 2002 and was formally inaugurated on 5 February 2004. Its three halls document the geology, cultures and climbing history of the Himalaya, including exhibits on Nepal's 8,000-metre peaks and their first ascents. Nearby, the Annapurna Natural History Museum (also called the Pokhara Butterfly Museum), housed at Prithvi Narayan Campus, holds one of Nepal's largest collections of Himalayan butterflies, insects and regional flora and fauna.

The Gurkha Memorial Museum at Lamachaur in Pokhara records the history of Nepali Gurkha soldiers in the British Army, with medals, uniforms and campaign displays. Elsewhere in Gandaki, the Gorkha Museum (Gorkha Durbar area) preserves the heritage of the Shah dynasty's ancestral seat, from which Prithvi Narayan Shah launched the unification of Nepal in the 18th century, and the Old Gurung Museum at Ghandruk on the Annapurna trail showcases traditional Gurung houses, dress and farming tools.

Upper Mustang and the trans-Himalayan belt add specialist sites: the Mustang Eco Museum at Jomsom presents the geology, Buddhist culture, traditional medicine (amchi) and salt-trade history of the Thak Khola and Mustang region. Together these make Gandaki the natural counterpart to Kathmandu for anyone searching for museums in Pokhara or mountain and ethnographic collections.

The southern plains hold Nepal's most important archaeology museums, anchored by the Buddha's birthplace. The Lumbini Museum, inside the Lumbini master-plan zone in Rupandehi, displays Mauryan and Kushan-period artifacts, manuscripts, coins and religious material relating to the life of Gautama Buddha. To the west, the Kapilvastu Museum at Tilaurakot preserves finds from the ancient Shakya capital where Prince Siddhartha spent his early life, including pottery, ornaments, coins and terracotta. Both are managed under the Department of Archaeology and complement the UNESCO World Heritage inscription of Lumbini.

In Madhesh Province, Janakpur's museums center on the Ramayana tradition and Mithila culture. The Janaki Mandir area holds historical and cultural displays connected to Sita and the Mithila kingdom, and Janakpur is also known for its Mithila (Madhubani) folk-art centres that function as living museums of the region's painting traditions. The Tharu-heartland museums of the western Tarai — such as the Tharu Cultural Museum and Research Centre in Chitwan and the Tharu museum near Bardiya National Park at Thakurdwara — document the language, dress, tools and rituals of the Tharu community.

These plains museums matter for school and university curricula in Nepal because they connect directly to two national heritage stories: the birth and early life of the Buddha, and the Ramayana's Janakpur. For tourists on the Lumbini circuit or the Chitwan and Bardiya national parks, they are the main cultural stops between wildlife safaris.

Eastern Nepal's museums cluster around Koshi Province's ethnic and provincial collections. The Dhankuta Provincial Museum is one of the Department of Archaeology's regional museums, presenting the history and material culture of the eastern hills. Higher up, in the Everest (Khumbu) region, the Sherpa Culture Museum at Namche Bazaar displays Sherpa dress, Buddhist ritual objects and mountaineering history for trekkers on the Everest Base Camp route. Community museums such as the Kirat and Limbu cultural collections preserve the traditions of the Kirat, Rai and Limbu peoples of the far east.

The mid-western and far-western hills add provincial and heritage museums. The Palpa Durbar (Tansen Durbar) heritage complex in Palpa, Lumbini Province, functions as a palace-museum recording Sen-dynasty and Rana-era history. In Karnali Province, the Karnali Province Museum in Surkhet is a regional Department of Archaeology museum, and the Sinja valley — the medieval capital of the Khas Malla kingdom and birthplace of the Nepali (Khas) language — preserves archaeological remains that function as an open-air heritage site.

Sudurpashchim (Far-Western) Province is the least served by formal museums, but includes local cultural and heritage collections such as the Dullu heritage area and small community museums, plus the Dhangadhi Aircraft Museum, a decommissioned aircraft converted into a visitor attraction. These regions illustrate why 'museums in Nepal' is best mapped province-by-province: outside Kathmandu and Pokhara, most museums are small, community-run and tied to a specific ethnic group or historic site.

This directory tags each museum by type so you can filter for exactly what you want to see. The main categories in Nepal are: history/general (the National Museum, regional museums), art (Patan Museum, National Art Museum, Taragaon Museum), palace (Hanumandhoka, Narayanhiti, Gorkha, Palpa), military (Nepali Army Museum, Gurkha Memorial Museum), natural history (Natural History Museum of Nepal, Annapurna/Butterfly Museum), ethnographic (National Ethnographic Museum, Sherpa, Tharu and Gurung museums), numismatic (National Numismatic Museum, Nepal Rastra Bank Museum), and archaeology (Lumbini, Kapilvastu). Specialist tags cover mountaineering, aviation, music and ecomuseums.

To use the table, filter first by province — Bagmati (the Kathmandu Valley) has the most, followed by Gandaki (Pokhara) — then by theme. Every row lists name, city/district, province, type and governing body, and each has a map pin, so you can plan a route: for example, all seven UNESCO Kathmandu Valley heritage sites contain or sit beside a museum. Opening hours, entry fees and weekly closing days change frequently and are not durable facts, so confirm them on each museum's own website or the Nepal Tourism Board before you visit.

A practical planning note: most government museums in Kathmandu close on Tuesdays and public holidays, and many charge separate entry fees for Nepali citizens, SAARC nationals and other foreigners. Because these rates and timings are revised most years, this directory deliberately omits live prices and instead links to authoritative sources where you can check the current figures.