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

in very exceptional cases. Empty niches should remain
empty if their images are lost; and the spaces occupied by
images in friezes and string courses should, in repaired
portions, be left blank” (§83).
A lot of a debate had been going on in what way this
distanced view of an archaeologist in colonial service
conflicted with practices of renewal in India down to
the present day. Ironically, the Archaeological Survey of
India broke these rules at many sites (Figs. 12, 13 and
14) with the result that budget constraints resulted in
dubious works.
The tragedy is that Nepal’s Ancient Monument Preservation
Act, promulgated in 1956 and amended a couple
of times, copied the Indian example. Nepal has quite a
few ruins in the far western districts; these escaped the
attention of the central administration until very recently.
The Newar architectural heritage of the Kathmandu
Valley, however, has no ruins, because temples, palaces
and monastic buildings had been maintained from the
earliest times, and in cases of neglect or loss repaired,
rebuilt or replaced. All of these structures are embedded
in living religious and cultural traditions.
To keep empty niches empty and parts of friezes blank,
as the Conservation Manual prescribes, would not only
demonstrate utter neglect and carelessness, but would
be felt as an insult. The Department of Archaeology of
Nepal, in fact, has never abided by these rules, but felt
repeatedly impelled to justify local practices and the demands
of the communities. However, in disregard of the
local practices, even the recently “Basic Guidelines for
the Preservation and Rebuilding of Monuments damaged
in the Earthquake, 2072 (2016)”, phrased by the
Department of Archaeology, prescribes under paragraph
32 c the use of “uncarved elements resembling the original
size, type and quality” in case evidence is lacking.
Moreover, “no gods and goddesses, or other images may
be carved based on conjecture”. It will probably be left
to the demands of the “local residents” as mentioned in
§13 of the Guidelines to avoid blank surfaces and to replicate
deities, the iconographical details of which in most
cases is common knowledge.
Practices in India, between conservation
and beautification
Ruins and memorials — the memorial at Jallianwala
Bagh in Amritsar
Memorials to violence are not only found in Europe. A
memorial recalling colonial terror is found at Amritsar,
India, where at the Jallianwala Bagh, a large walled garden
in the heart of the city, troops were given free rein
to gun down the people assembling for an unauthorized
public meeting on 13 April 1919, the date commemorating
the founding of the Sikh religion. More than
15
Amritsar, India. Built in 1961,
the Jallianwala Bagh Memorial
is dedicated to the massacre of
1919. Bullet holes in the wall are
indicated.
Source: public domain
16, 17
Satrunjaya in Gujarat, India. The
surface of Jain temples is cyclically
removed and restored to achieve
perfection.
Photograph N. Gutschow, 2009
37