About the Project
Why We Remember
Between 1991 and the late 2010s, more than a hundred thousand Lhotshampa people from Bhutan lived in refugee camps in eastern Nepal. A generation was born, schooled, married, and mourned between bamboo walls. Then, family by family, the camps emptied into a worldwide diaspora — and the physical place itself began to disappear.
Camps of Memory exists so the place does not vanish from memory too. It is an interactive memorial, a digital museum, and a living archive: the story for those who were never told it, and a keeping-place for those who lived it.
For our parents, who carried us. For our children, who will ask.
Our ethics
How this story is told
Dignity first
Every person in this story is shown as a full human being — never as a symbol of suffering, never as decoration for someone else’s narrative.
Permission always
Real names, photographs, and testimonies appear only with the informed consent of the people they belong to, and can be withdrawn at any time.
Truth over drama
We do not exaggerate trauma or soften it into sentiment. Dates and figures are checked with historians, agencies, and community elders before publication.
Community-owned
This is an archive by and for the Bhutanese-Nepali community. Editorial decisions belong to community reviewers, not outside curators.
Where the project stands
A prototype, honestly labelled
What you see today is a working prototype. The illustrated scenes are artistic impressions; the “voices” are clearly-marked composites; dates on the timeline are summarised from public accounts and still need review by historians and community elders.
The next chapters depend on the community: real photographs, recorded testimonies, school registers, songs, maps drawn from memory. If you can contribute — or correct us — we want to hear from you.