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

siderations but not to earthquake activity. The iconic
multi-tiered temple type, with its very wide overhanging
roofs and timber structure but little or no positive connections
inside to outside, or of the main edifice to the
base, is a classic example.
Materials - historical, evolving, confusing
The materials used in historic Newar construction have
changed over time in a way that is poorly understood
today. The seismic story of the Kathmandu Valley,
with its long history of buildings falling and being rebuilt
multiple times, is an important factor in the virtual
disappearance of many of the original materials used in
their construction -but there are other factors at play as
well. To explore this evolution, we need to distinguish
three categories of materials, which we designate here
as historic (meaning original, i.e. what was used during
the Malla era when the buildings were first built); later
(referring to materials that have been used for a while,
perhaps even since the early 20th century, but were not
original to Newar buildings of the Malla era); and modern
(which has not been used consistently, as discussed
below).
Many, perhaps most, of the historic or original materials
have to our knowledge disappeared from all structures
remaining today. We are fortunate that Niels Gutschow
definitively documented these materials, along with the
related topics of historic construction assemblies, tools,
and even rituals, in his 1988 book “ Newars Towns and
Buildings.” In some cases this building dictionary may
be the only record of a traditional construction method,
such as a recipe for silay, a resin pointing used for stone
and brick facades, now lost. Where we do find surviving
original materials, such as the façade bricks, daci apa, or
other specialty cornice tiles or unique historical sizes of
common brick, the Trust tries to reuse wherever possible
and custom-order new, matching pieces as necessary. It
is important to note that the practice of using original
materials for repairs or rebuilding was not the case in the
Kathmandu Valley for most of the 20th century. New
brick – whether the oversized bricks stamped with Prime
Minister Juddha Shamsher’s seal that were popular in the
post-1934 quake rebuildings or “machine made” brick
–the mass-produced variety available in the 60’s, these
were preferred for all building work, both historical and
new, until the recent past. It was in the 1970’s with the
arrival of international conservation teams at the Pujari
Math and Hanuman Dhoka projects, that the idea of
using original or historical materials arrived, as did commissions
to revive long-closed small-scale production facilities.
Interestingly, these replicas of the original daci
apa and jhinghati tiles are experiencing a renaissance in
current revival architecture, too, although the quality of
the early materials has never been matched.
The later materials are many, including all Rana-era improvements,
and are sometimes imported from or influenced
by Nepal’s neighbors, India and China. To take
roof assemblies as an example, one highly visible later
material is the large terra-cotta machine made roof tile
that often replaces the traditional handmade terra-cotta
jhinghati. These larger tiles were used extensively by the
Rana rulers in the 20th c, for example, to refurbish the
Patan Palace roofscape. They are installed over timber
sleepers (eliminating the jhingati’s heavy mud bed) and
require less maintenance.
While some argue that these materials are themselves
now traditional and should be retained where found, the
Trust does not retain these replacement tiles where they
are encountered on our project buildings because
Maintenance, and strengthening vs. demolition
Given the long history of neglect of Kathmandu Valley
heritage, which has been chronicled in every traveler’s
account since at least the early 19th century, one should
assume little to no future maintenance of projects, and
the historic moment of new construction of the type is
long past, meaning each successive earthquake now takes
its toll in vast numbers of weakened traditional buildings
that will collapse or be demolished and will never
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