# Himalayan Languages Project

The Himalayan Languages Project, launched in 1993, is a research collective based at Leiden University and comprising much of the world's authoritative research on the lesser-known and endangered languages of the Himalayas, in Nepal, China, Bhutan, and India. Its members regularly spend months or years at a time doing field research with native speakers. The Director of the Himalayan Languages Project is George van Driem. Project members include Mark Turin and Jeroen Wiedenhof. The project recruits graduate students to collect field data on little-known languages for their Ph.D. dissertations.
The Himalayan Languages Project was officially commissioned by the government of Bhutan to devise a standard romanization of Dzongkha.
Since George van Driem's move to the University of Bern, many members of the Himalayan Languages Project are now based out of Switzerland.

## Languages studied

The project has completed comprehensive grammars of the following languages:
* Limbu
* Dumi
* Dzongkha
* Wambule
* Kulung
* Jero
The project is currently working on comprehensive grammars of the following languages:
* Manchad
* Lohorung
* Thangmi
* Sunwar
* Lhokpu
* Sampang
* Gongduk
* Olekha
* Gyalrong
* Lepcha
* Chulung
* Dhimal
The project has completed grammatical sketches of the following languages:
* Bumthang
* Byangsi
* Puma
* Rabha
* Rongpo
Members of the project are currently working on grammatical sketches of the following languages:
* Baram
* Dura
* Toto
The project has also studied Kusunda, a language isolate of Nepal.

## Himalayan Languages Symposium

Members of the Himalayan Languages Project also regularly organise the Himalayan Languages Symposium, an annual conference on Trans-Himalayan languages. Conferences have been held annually since 1995.
Below is a list of past conferences.
| Event | Location | Country | Date | Year |
| HLS 1 | Leiden | Netherlands | June 16–17 | 1995 |
| HLS 2 | Noordwijkerhout | Netherlands | October 11–12 | 1996 |
| HLS 3 | Santa Barbara, California | United States | July 17–20 | 1997 |
| HLS 4 | Pune | India | December 7–9 | 1998 |
| HLS 5 | Kathmandu | Nepal | September 13–15 | 1999 |
| HLS 6 | Milwaukee, Wisconsin | United States | June 15–17 | 2000 |
| HLS 7 | Uppsala | Sweden | September 7–9 | 2001 |
| HLS 8 | Bern | Switzerland | September 19–22 | 2002 |
| HLS 9 | Mysore | India | December 9–12 | 2003 |
| HLS 10 | Thimphu | Bhutan | December 1–3 | 2004 |
| HLS 11 | Bangkok | Thailand | December 6–9 | 2005 |
| HLS 12 | Kathmandu | Nepal | November 26–29 | 2006 |
| HLS 13 | Shimla | India | October 22–24 | 2007 |
| HLS 14 | Gothenburg | Sweden | August 21–23 | 2008 |
| HLS 15 | Eugene, Oregon | United States | July 30–August 1 | 2009 |
| HLS 16 | London | United Kingdom | September 2–5 | 2010 |
| HLS 17 | Kobe | Japan | September 6–9 | 2011 |
| HLS 18 | Varanasi | India | September 10–12 | 2012 |
| HLS 19 | Canberra | Australia | September 6–8 | 2013 |
| HLS 20 | Singapore | Singapore | July 16–18 | 2014 |
| HLS 21 | Kirtipur | Nepal | November 26–28 | 2015 |
| HLS 22 | Guwahati | India | June 8–10 | 2016 |
| HLS 23 | Tezpur | India | July 5–7 | 2017 |
| HLS 24 | Lucknow | India | June 8–10 | 2018 |
| HLS 25 | Sydney | Australia | June 28–29 | 2019 |
| HLS 26 | Paris | France | September 4–6 | 2023 |
| HLS 27 | Guwahati | India | June 12–14 | 2024 |
| HLS 28 | Eugene, Oregon | United States | August 2–3 | 2025 |