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

at present, the replacement of tile roofs by rich merchants
or local communities became a pervasive practice, while
the ever increasing price of gold leads to the gilding being
replaced by gold bronze or yellow enamel paint. As
steward of conservation, the authorized Department of
Archaeology has no control whatsoever.
To the disgust of conservationists, donations from devotees
have resulted in additions such as canopies, railings,
and large-scale iron grids of very inferior craftsmanship.
Obviously, contemporary donors have become stingy.
Examples of such dubious donations can be seen at
Vambaha in Patan, where the most precious 6th-century
Caitya was encircled by a railing in 2010, and the Manicaitya
on Patan’s Darbar Square in 2014 (Fig. 20). To
beautify or to add to a religious structure is a meritorious
act which cannot be channeled by an agency. In the
context of living traditions, it just happens. Worth mentioning
in this context is the covering of the outstanding
15th century lintel ends of the principal entrance of the
Ibahabahi with gold bronze in October 2013 on the occasion
of the Dasain festival.
Tradition and change
Beautification and the desire to accumulate merit have
to be considered as traditional attitudes. In contrast,
conservation has rather to be understood as an intellectual
and educational attitude adopted by a society that is
alienated from its past. The context is lost. It is the material
evidence, the artistic accomplishment that is worshipped
and identified with. This identification can even
lead to emotional attachment, albeit based on education
or even agitation. In Nepal, an alienation of this kind began
only very recently with the schooling of all children,
the increasing loss of historical fabric in the wake of an
aggressive urban development, real estate business, and
the 2015 earthquake.
Almost all of a sudden, ethnicity and customs became
a concern, and advocates of vegetarianism are fighting
animal sacrifice in the name of Ahimsa (the precept of
non-violence). Among Newars, the age-old funeral associations
are about to dissolve as they are unable to cope
with inter-caste and inter-ethnic marriages. But the Supernaturals
remain powerful: almost every household
continues to pacify the deities and spirits of the neighborhood
in the early morning and on the occasion of the
annual worship of the ancestors (Sorashraddha), even
King Birendra or the famous Malla kings such as Bhupatindra
receiving their share in the shape of a dumpling
of wheat flour.
The coming generation will inevitably enter into a never-ending
process of re-evaluation of the legacy of the
past and reconcile traditional religious practices with
values that have gradually evolved with the modernization
of society and the advent of global aesthetic norms
in connection with work and leisure, education and science.
Fundamental changes in rebuilding: The example of the
Tripureśvara temple in Kathmandu after the 1934
earthquake
The Tripureshvara temple was established in 1818 in the
center of a large quadrangle along the Bagmati River in
Kathmandu. The donor, Queen Lalita Tripurasundari,
who initiated the construction in memory of her spouse,
King Rana Bahadur Shah (1755–1806), completed the
building within 14 months. Acting as Regent, she used
her position and the financial resources of the country
to construct a powerful memorial, rivalling in size
Kathmandu’s Taleju temple. The design incorporated
mid-18th century innovations, but followed largely the
prototype of the triple-tiered temple, established by the
Gokarneshvara temple at the end of the 16th century.
Photographs have not been found, but recent research
suggests a dismantling and total reconstruction after the
1934 earthquake. Most striking is the incorporation of
exposed latticed windows in the first level, because the
22
Chauni, earthquake memorial,
displaying a twisted double-T-girder
beside Juddha Shamsher Rana
at the premises of the National
Museum, erected ca. 1938.
Photograph N. Gutschow, 2008
23
Bhaktapur, Nyatapvala temple. In
1962 the Public Works Department
carried out an extensive beautification
scheme which included
filling cracks on columns – which
occurred at the time of construction
in 1702 – with cement and
covering all woodwork with paint.
Photograph N. Gutschow, 2007
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