The Singhini Anusandhan Kendra (Singhini Research Center) is an independent association, which aims to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of the Himalayas. Founded in March 2001 at the instigation of Franck Bernede, a french cellist and ethnomusicologist, the center is situated in the ancient royal city of Patan (Lalitpur). Bringing together applied musicology and an anthropological vision, its objectives are organised around three central themes: research, preservation and the promotion of musical heritage.

Rather than be limited by a fixed musicological perspective, the center intends primarily to invigorate traditional practice as a referential basis for its explorations and research. With this in mind, the team involved includes musical artists, singers and dancers. The center also works in direct collaboration with foreign and Nepali scholars and specialists in such widely differing fields as linguistics, musicology, ethnology, history, visual anthropology and instrument making. In addition to this, it maintains a close relationship with masters of the tradition thus guaranteeing a source of inspiration for its research.

The center wishes to develop its activities in the two areas it considers most important, collecting and archiving. These are aimed at the creation of a center for the digital documentation of written, oral / aural and visual sources. The center wishes not only to create a place of reflection and experimentation for different artistic disciplines in the Himalayas, but also a meeting place for exchange between artists and scholars. In this spirit, the center plans to organise educational programes, conferences, seminars and public concerts and equally to ensure a continuing relationship with individuals and institutions through the production of discs and electronic publications.