Muni Sakya

On May 17, 2006, for the first time in Nepal, Sakya's supercomputer with 16 nodes was demonstrated. This supercomputer worked on open source OS with OpenMosix and Oscar. The supercomputer utilized sixteen computers in a cluster. This computer is on display at High Tech Pioneer Pvt. Ltd, located at Kalikasthan, Dillibazar, Nepal.

Around 2004-2005, Sakya developed the Munis Robot that can speak Nepali with the capability to discern obstacles by the help of built-in ultrasonic, infrared, mechanical whiskers, and other visual and audio capabilities.

Sakya’s primary interest is in designing systems to operate in the Nepali language. Because of the difficulty in programming in the Nepali language, Nepalese software was limited to word processing. He did his first demonstration of computing in the Nepali language on a microcomputer with the display of the Nepalese National Anthem in Devanagari script in 1983 on a CP/M-based computer. He received the Science Award in December 1983 for this work. He developed a software package complete with all Nepali characters. Certificates and checks were printed in the Nepali language using it. Commercial Nepali software can be developed. Sakya is working towards software with Nepali menus and commands so that Nepalis can work with computers without knowledge of English.

Sakya went to the US in 1981 to work on the development of floppy disk controllers. As I/O cards were yet to be invented, after he came back from the US, he made I/O cards required for the hard disk. He designed microprocessor-based traffic controllers in Kathmandu. He opened the first Nepalese company for manufacturing computer cards, Sun Moon Computer Industry, in 1995, and established Hi-Tech Pioneer Ltd, an Internet Service Provider.

In 1979, he made the first microcomputer in Nepal. He built the power supply and video card himself. He bought a keyboard from the US and made the monitor from a Russian television. At the South Asian Regional Conference on computers, held in Kathmandu in 1979, Sakya demonstrated his device.

Sakya designed and fabricated devices, including a laboratory type stabilized power supply and a sine wave generator. He went to France in 1973, where he worked until 1979. In France he decided to switch to computing and made microprocessor-based controllers and video cards while studying communication, digital electronics and computer techniques there.

After completing the diploma, he returned Nepal and helped a British engineer to make a 10kw radio transmitter. Observing his skill, he was invited to study in England in 1970 as a British Council scholar.

He joined Tri-Chandra College as a physics student. However, due to interest in electronics, he opted to study engineering, and got a in radio engineering from Calcutta, India in 1962.

Sakya was born in 1942, in Patan. His father is Buddharaj Shakya. He had three siblings. His birth name was Muni Shakya but his teacher in school added the Bahadhur as the middle name. He tried to correct the name, but it could not happen and his certificates used the name Muni Bahadhur Shakya.