Ratna Pustak Bhandar

The history of Nepal's oldest bookshop dating back to 1939, when Ram Das Shrestha started selling books, mostly religious, in a cart in Bhotahity, near Ratna Park, Kathmandu.

[2] Since then Ratna Pustak Bhandar has been providing a wide range of books to the people by publishing, importing and distributing throughout the country.

Lekhnath Paudyal, Balkrishna Sama, Siddhicharan Shrestha, Kedarman Byathit, Bishweshwor Prasad Koirala, Lain Singh Bangdel, Madan Mani Dixit, Shankar Lamichhane, Hridaya Chandra Singh Pradhan, Madhav Prasad Ghimire, Satya Mohan Joshi, Dhooswan Sayami, Bhairav Aryal, Tara Nath Sharma, Krishna Chandra Singh Pradhan, Abhi Subedi, Dhruba Chandra Gautam, Sanu Sharma, Govinda Raj Bhattarai, Padmawati Singh, Maya Thakuri and many other prominent figures of Nepalese literary world were and are associated with Ratna Pustak Bhandar.

Similarly, for the publication of children's literature, Kavitaram Bal Sahitya Prabardan gave a special award in 2006.

British anthropologist Mark Turin has nominated Ratna Pustak Bhandar as one of his "old favorites" among Nepal's publishing houses which "have weathered the country's recent political and social turmoil" and have survived into post-1990 democratic period alongside new publishing houses, often with family-run bookshops, such as Himal Books and Mandala.