KVPT’s Patan Darbar Earthquake Response Campaign - Work to Date - September 2016

Top left
Original base of a column showing
the mortise which received a tenon
to connect it to the plinth.
Patan, 24 March 2016
Top right
Once it has been decided how to
orient a heavily weathered column,
the upper tenon can be completed.
Shree Shyam Krishna Silpakar
makes a rough shape using a hand
saw, before refining the tenon into
its final form.
Patan, 25 March 2016
Bottom Right
The base of each column will
remain temporarily as an extra long
block so it can be adapted once a
decision is reached on the restoration
of the plinth.
Patan, 24 March 2016
Columns’ decorative carvings
Some deities inhabiting miniature niches on the respective
sides of the columns, either on the lower part (Nev.
tau) or just below the upper spacing board (Nev. cakulã),
and some decorative floral details were for some time
waiting to be carved. As there are no detailed models,
e.g. photographs or drawings, they cannot be copied
from any original. It was decided to design the details in
analogy to preserved ones.
Repair and Restoration of Columns
For the restoration of the eleven outer columns of South
Manimaṇḍapa, each had to be inspected individually,
resulting in a range of responses. All the columns date
from the late 16th or even 15th century and are intricately
carved, following a classical design pattern. This
column type differs from the design of the four inner
columns, and also from the design of the North
Manimaṇḍapa columns.
However similar they might be, each column differs
slightly from the others. With the aims of keeping as
much not only of the original wood but also of the intention
of the original designer as possible, and at the
same time maximizing their structural integrity, each
column called for a different intervention. Stainless steel
pins were used in two cases, for example, where the lower
parts of a column had to be replaced by new elements.
In the following pages, various examples document individual
solutions for the repair and restoration of these
original timber columns.
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