Kathmandu Valley may be consumed by urban sprawl, but the historic core of Patan has changed little in the last 400 years. Destroyed and rebuilt serval times over the centuries, the seat of the Malla kings is a jewel in the crown of Nepal’s heritage.&nbsp; Now, the next generation of Nepali school students have found an exciting and fun way to find out more about the history of their geography. The Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust (KVPT) has launched a series of interactive maps with bilingual explanations meant for students on school excursions called ‘Let’s Discover Patan Durbar Square’. The maps are distributed to schools to use during their study trips and prompt students to draw what they see, or create something new. One activity asks students to dream up a new monument in the square that respects heritage but would endure, while keeping in mind material of cultural significance. Another activity asks students to hunt for particular elements in the carvings or pillars, forcing them to pay close attention to the details. Another task tells them to count the number of gilded gajur pinnacles on Krishna Mandir, and then draw them. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/multimedia/a-portal-into-patan-s-past-and-present">A portal into Patan’s past and present</a>, Prakriti Kandel Creative activities vary in complexity and difficulty and challenge the students to also think beyond what they see: one asks students to ‘imagine the underground pipes and the main source of water at Manga Hiti’. The colourful maps come in A4-size booklets and are part of an Educational Outreach project started in 2017 by the art festival Kathmandu Triennale, and now taken over by KVPT. The English and Nepali text on a map guides young visitors around the Patan Darbar Complex. The booklet reflects the Malla era aesthetics of the palace square. &nbsp; “We hope that the maps will extend the outreach to schools and students with first-hand interaction with this historic and cultural site,” says Sophia L Pandé at KVPT, which has been involved in the restoration of the Valley’s heritage, especially after the 2015 earthquake. It aims to inspire a sense of responsibility for conservation from a young age, and the third edition of the map project was supported by the US Embassy, and the one before that by the New Zealand High Commission.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/banner/preserving-patan-post-earthquake">Preserving Patan post-earthquake</a>, Claire Burket  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240513040556_e01331402a08762bb303990060d6fedff5f96735498556761c3dfdba4f86727e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240513040556_e01331402a08762bb303990060d6fedff5f96735498556761c3dfdba4f86727e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1500" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Patan for beginners NT"> </figure>  One of the creators of the maps, Rishi Amatya, says the Patan Darbar Complex is an open space that can foster creativity and give culture inter-generational continuity. After every earthquake, the palace complex has also provided safety and shelter to the people of Patan.&nbsp; “Around the year, the open spaces of Patan Darbar Square serve as the traditional stage for jatras,” explains Amatya, “so it is not just the temples and monuments but also the intangible heritage that makes this place so important.” Amatya worked alongside editor Sharareh Bajracharya and illustrator Suman Maharjan on the Let’s Discover Patan Durbar Square series. Maharjan’s illustrations make the booklets introspective and vibrant, which even adults will find interesting and informative. With his extensive experience drawing picture books, Nepali elements feature heavily in his work. The drawings balance faithful detail in the temples with a playful, cartoon-like style in depicting people and activities. The booklets are printed in high-quality and do the drawings justice, and it is a physical copy that students can pick up at the Patan Museum. Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/review/patan-heritage-in-fantasy-fiction">Patan heritage in fantasy fiction</a>, Trishagni Sakya There is a lot of work that goes into making the maps, and it starts with Amatya’s research. Being a local he has a lot of knowledge passed down from his forebears, as well as first-hand stories and history books. He then researches monuments and develops a narrative that fits a theme.&nbsp; The Keshav Narayan Chok hosts the Hindu god and columns from when it was part of a Buddhist Vihar. There are Lichhavi-era stone columns and reminders of when the square was the seat of the Mallas. The dome roof structures point to post-earthquake Rana influences. In the first map, characters get a bird's-eye view of Sundari Chok and Mul Chok on Garuda’s back. The project requires the writer, editor, and illustrator to work closely, to decide what to include and what to leave out. “Rishi and I spent a lot of time walking around Darbar Square to get the drawings right,” says Maharjan. The effectiveness of the maps were obvious during a recent tour for students from Adarsha Kanya Niketan, a school adjacent to the museum. The Trust also provides transport for schools that come from further away and Amatya acts as a guide, training other guides.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/itumbahas-living-museum">Itumbaha's living museum</a>, Sahina Shrestha To book tours, contact Patan Museum or the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust.

Vishad Onta

original

674x448

610x380

500x500

400x266

400x240

400x203

301x200

1084x550

thumbnail

viewImage

Patan for beginners

Preserving Patan post-earthquake

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/637222d59c7e80680e0c0319jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800"/><figcaption>Bhaktapur Darbar Square. Photo: AMIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure>Restoration of monuments damaged in the 2015 earthquake have been carried out differently in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/a-monumental-rivalry/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kathmandu</a>, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/restoring-a-piece-of-nepals-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Lalitpur</a> and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/bhaktapur-shows-the-way-by-rebuilding-itself/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bhaktapur</a>, and this has depended a lot on the political will and community involvement to adhere to traditional building methods and materials.The <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/righting-heritage-%20reconstruction-gone-wrong,3670" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cohesiveness of the community</a> living in the historic core of the three cities has also determined the pace and accuracy of reconstruction after the 2015 earthquake.Since Bhaktapur and Lalitpur have retained much of the historic sense of community and have elected more accountable mayors, restoration there has gone much better than in Kathmandu.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/637222d89c7e80680e0c031ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="750"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>For example, restoration work on the Trailokya-Mohan Narayan temple in Kathmandu is now complete. The plastered walls, wooden colonnade, cornices and tile roofs of the three-storey shrine on a five-stage brick plinth at Hanuman Dhoka have returned to their pre-2015 state.However, for specialists like German architect <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/love-of-heritage/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Wolfgang Korn</a>, the restoration is not quite what it should be. He was surprised to see that the temple had been rebuilt with unpainted plaster that is Rana-style, and not Malla-era as it should be.“The struts in Malla-era temples are always carved, with the red dachi appa used as veneer bricks,” says historian Dinesh Raj Panta, according to whom the temple was originally built in the late 17th century by Parthivendra Malla, Pratap Malla’s son. This makes the white walls uncharacteristic.Restoration of the nearby Maju Dega is not yet complete, and scaffolds and green net cover the construction. Korn, who made detailed measurements of the temple in the 1970s (see accompanying piece, below) fears that Maju Dega will also repeat the mistakes on the Trailokya-Mohan Narayan.“The Department of Archaeology requires only traditional materials and methods be used in rebuilding these sites,” says Korn. “So, I ask myself why this Rana-style on a Malla-era temple? Where are the carved struts?”Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-history-of-heritage/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The history of heritage</a>, Ashish DhakalSanjeev Man Shrestha, who is a retired engineer with the Department of Archaeology (DoA) and was involved in the reconstruction of the Trailokya-Mohan temple, says that the verification of the rebuilt structure is in fact based on photographic evidence. And photos taken before 2015 show both temples with white plaster walls and, in the case of the Narayan temple, with some uncarved struts on the second and third tiers.“We do not know if it was indeed renovated previously,” Shrestha adds, “but we have used all original materials in the rebuilding wherever possible, even renovating the broken and cracked timber, and replacing with replicas where necessary.”Architect Amit Bajracharya at the Hanuman Dhoka Darbar Square Conservation Program says that 80% of the wooden windows, doors, pillars and struts were recovered after the earthquake and they have been used in the restoration.It could be that some of the temples in Kathmandu have been restored to their pre-2015 form, but this is not necessarily what they looked like before the 1934 earthquake. This has thrown up questions of how far back we should go when restoring a monument.Kathmandu has also seen geopolitical competition in restoration, with the Chinese helping rebuild the Hanuman Dhoka Palace, the Americans involved in the restoration of Gaddi Baithak, and the Japanese of other temples in the palace complex.Read Also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/kathmandus-temple-restoration-after-1934-quake/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Kathmandu's temple restoration after 1934 earthquake</a>, Sahina Shrestha<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/637222da9c7e80680e0c031bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="667"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Over in Bhaktapur, the town’s main gate was plastered white during the Rana-era. It was damaged again in 2015, but architects there have retired it to its Malla-era state with exposed bricks.“We wanted it to look traditional, keeping with how it must have appeared when it was built,” explains architect Ram Govinda Shrestha of Bhaktapur Municipality.Nearly all of Bhaktapur’s monuments damaged in 2015 have been restored because of active cooperation between the local communities and the municipality.Shrestha says the municipality used three approaches for renovation: by the community, by the municipality and through DoA contractors: “In all three approaches, the community was involved in supervision. Woodworkers, masons and craftspeople were also selected by the people, and the municipality helped with finding funds.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/637222dd9c7e80680e0c031cjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="667"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>In Lalitpur, most renovation and rebuilding projects were undertaken through the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust (KVPT) with active community participation.Says KVPT’s Rohit Ranjitkar: “There was minimal bureaucracy, and the work was completed through coordination of the local government and the community. KVPT has also been working in Patan since 2008, which means that the locals trust us.”It is different in Kathmandu because it does not have the level of expertise that the other two cities of the Valley have, and <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/rebuilding-kasthamandap-nepal,4012" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">community participation</a> is also not at the same level.“Kathmandu lacks the skilled artisans, and therefore is <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/resurrecting-rani-pokhari-right/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">dependent upon Bhaktapur</a>,” admits Amit Bajracharya. “There is also less public participation or interest, as many locals in and around the old town have moved away.”Ranjitkar says this has meant that the people around the heritage sites in Kathmandu are not original residents but people who rent rooms or shops. “As fewer and fewer locals remain, there is also less and less ownership and engagement,” he adds.This has also meant that much of the rebuilding in Kathmandu is being done through the DoA’s bidding process, adding to the inaccuracy in restoration.For instance, the medieval Chilancho Chaitya in Kirtipur which was damaged in 2015 was quickly renovated by the DoA. But just a year later, a crack appeared from the finial to the dome.Read Also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/rebuilding-kathmandu-after-the-1934-quake/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Rebuilding Kathmandu after the 1934 quake</a>, Alina BajracharyaEach rebuilding and renovation is particular to the monument, as there is not one such treatment for every building: but a contractor may not be aware of this. Indeed, the lowest bidder with experience in working mostly with concrete, and building modern houses and roads are involved in Kathmandu’s heritage restoration.“On top of lack of expertise and resources, this is also a result of a lack of forethought and patience,” explains Bharat Maharjan of Nepal Heritage Documentation Project. “Brick walls are different from concrete, sometimes it may take days between one layer and another, work may be paused because a decoration needs to be set. Each step is sensitive and significant. But when people don’t know much about heritage conservation, they don’t consider the quality of work, but only deadlines.”Further, there are also traditional dimensions to consider in a temple, and processes that are no longer practiced in residential buildings, but integral to heritage restoration.“With tender, it becomes overly bureaucratic, with a lot of interference,” says Bajracharya. “And the lowest bidder with no expertise in heritage conservation leads to inferior work and compromises to the structure and design.” However, he adds that workers and artisans involved in Hanuman Dhoka have been trained: “Even though it is the lowest bidder who gets the contract, we have tried to make the restoration as authentic as possible.”Sanjeev Man Shrestha agrees, saying that the DoA has its criteria when selecting the contractor, which takes into account their experience in working with wood, bricks and other traditional materials.But it may not always be possible to use traditional materials and practices. Korn believes that if the Malla architects had known of ways to make buildings even more structurally sound, they would have used them.While traditional practices, designs and methods should be preserved and utilised, Rohit Ranjitkar says that architects should also be pragmatic. In a few cases, modern elements, such as steel beams, have been used in Patan just to make the structures stronger.“We also have to think about our place in an earthquake-prone region and it is not prudent to blindly remake a structurally unsound temple or monument,” Ranjitkar adds. “We should also think about how we may improve a previously collapsed building so that more lives may be saved in time of the next disaster.”<h2>Measuring up to Kathmandu's heritage</h2><h5>Restoration of monuments is made easier because of scale drawings by a German architect done 50 years ago</h5>https://youtu.be/GOBtQaqQg0wWolfgang Korn leads the way up to the top floor of Lalit Heritage Hotel in Patan. Through the glass doors, the terrace opens almost like a stage for a view of Patan Darbar.Under the grey sky, the oblique roofs, red bricks and stone temples look restful, against rows of people on benches. Among the scaffolds, spires and baked tiles, the two-tiered Char Narayan Temple stands out.This is one of many monuments of Kathmandu Valley that Korn surveyed in 1970, producing detailed drawings.Born in Dessau in what was then East Germany, Korn first arrived in Nepal when he was 25 in 1968. Having studied architecture, he had applied for a German Development Service project in West Africa. They asked him if he would like to go to Nepal instead.He was fascinated by his first walk around Kathmandu past gods and goddesses, quaint brick houses along narrow streets, wood carvings and stone monuments.Korn worked for the Physical Planning Section of the government designing the office buildings. There, he met architect <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/taragaon-museum-boudha,1609" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Carl Pruscha</a> who was then mapping out two Ring Roads to give Kathmandu an urban plan for future growth, and started surveying sacred sites.“It is important to know where the heritage sites are when one plans a town,” explains Korn. “Very often, I went alone with the driver, as people in the government did not want to leave their office.”This work brought him closer to the ancient Newa architecture of Kathmandu Valley that used wood and bricks to create a highly structured network of urban buildings and open spaces.“I am not a historian or a researcher but a curious craftsman,” says Korn, recalling how he climbed into the shrines to measure, collect and draw cross-sections.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114121112/637222df9c7e80680e0c031djpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="667"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Once in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/ancient-panautis-french-connection/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Panauti</a>, he had to convert to Hinduism for 17 minutes to study the damage to the Indresvar Temple.“I was staring up at the carvings when the pujari came over and asked what I was doing,” recounts Korn. “When I explained to him my profession, he asked me my opinion regarding the topmost, third tier of the temple that was leaning to one side.”When Korn said that he would not be able to say much from the ground, the priest brought out a copper plate with flowers, vermilion and rice grain. He then started chanting a prayer, sprinkled water and put a red tika on Korn's forehead, declaring him a temporary Hindu so he could enter the sanctorum to study it.Keeping to the walls, Korn climbed up to the topmost tier, made some quick pencil sketches, and came down covered in dust and pigeon muck. He briefed the priest about the kind of repairs needed, after which he performed the ceremony in reverse, wiping the tika off his forehead, and restored Korn back to Christianity.The experience at Indresvar also confirmed to Korn that the Valley's temples were historically two-tiered, and the third roof was often a later addition.Between 1970 and 1977, Korn prepared scaled drawings of many structures, including the Indra Sattal in Bhaktapur, Kasthamandap, Lakshmi-Narayan Sattal, Chusya Baha in Kathmandu, and Char Narayan Temple in Patan.After an extensive survey of Pujari Math in Bhaktapur in 1971 and 1972, Korn embarked solo on the Temple Catalogue Project to prepare an inventory of all tiered temples of the Valley with a photographic catalogue and typologies.His later work with the Hanuman Dhoka Renovation Project in 1973 and private documentation of temples, monasteries, falcha, private houses, carved windows, led to the publication of the first book on Newa architecture, <a href="https://archive.org/details/TraditionalArchitectureOfTheKathmanduValleyByWolfgangKorn_201712" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Traditional Architecture of the Kathmandu Valley</a>, in 1976.After the 2015 earthquake destroyed many historical monuments in the Valley, Korn’s detailed scale drawings of the Maju Dega, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/resurrecting-kasthamandap-from-the-rubble/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kasthamandap</a>, Char Narayan and Vatsala Temple have been instrumental in their accurate restoration.Despite this, Korn is not happy about the haphazard urbanisation of Kathmandu Valley, especially post-2015. He was surprised by the restoration of the Malla-era Trailokya Mohan Narayan Temple in Kathmandu where the walls have been plastered and painted white in the Rana-era style. The same methods are being used in rebuilding Maju Dega, another Malla-era temple dating back to 1692, of which Korn had also taken detailed measurements 50 years ago.“It looks like the contractor wanted to save money and got away with it,” Korn says, shaking his head.He believes rebuilding heritage sites should never be given to the lowest bidder, especially when they know nothing about struts, carvings and dimensions.“To rebuild heritage, you need architects who understand the specific materials traditionally used, such as dachi appa in Newa buildings,” he says.These rejections of standard building practices are perhaps the reason why the Valley’s towns look the way they do today: residences, offices blocks and view towers rising in a babble of concrete and steel.Fortunately, the dramatic transformation of the Valley has not deterred Korn’s caring and curious spirit. He has been visiting Nepal several weeks a year to work with the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust (KVPT) on renovations at Patan Darbar Square.He also lectures to Nepali architecture students, inspiring a new generation to care about heritage. “Because,” he adds, “you kill the past by not caring.”

Ashish Dhakal

A tale of three cities

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d13489c7e80680e0a9915jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3360" height="2240"/><figcaption>All photos: MONIKA DEUPALA</figcaption></figure>A vast circle is crammed with densely packed houses stacked on top of one another. Drawn in black ink, their edges merge as they jostle in space.The narrow strips between the houses have fluid shadows, but in the middle of this urban universe is a white hole. “That is a doughnut,” says a visitor, at the Siddhartha Art Gallery where artist Sujan Dangol’s meticulous line drawings are on display at the <a href="https://www.siddharthaartgallery.com/exhibition-events/342-tale-of-a-city-invitation">Tales of a City exhibition</a> till the end of the month.“I cannot impose my concepts or ideas on viewers, their interpretation is just as genuine and appropriate because they view it subjectively as their own background, thoughts and feelings come into play,” Dangol explains in his studio in Koteshwor. Light bounces off his round glasses as the 40-year-old artist's gaze turns to the large window on his left.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d134b9c7e80680e0a9916jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3024" height="4032"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The studio is an open space with sofas, bookstands and tables about. In one corner is a large painting — “A friend is working on that one,” Dangol says — and metal and clay sculptures sit on various shelves. He is dressed in a long, brown corduroy shirt, and his hand hangs above a work in progress: another large canvas, nearly filled to the brim with tiny houses and streets.It is clear that the drawings depict the tremendous transformation that has turned Kathmandu Valley’s rich urban-agro civilisation into <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=19765#.YZDL21VByJA">a concrete jungle</a>. Dangol’s sketches represent dizzying, densely packed towns with teetering temples and dilapidated homes, almost like a cartoon, or satire.For Dangol, art is a three-point collaboration between an artist, the object and the viewers who exist in the space between the abstract and the real. The experience is incomplete even when only one of the three is missing. The drawings feel at once familiar and foreign — the sprawling urbanscape is part of our daily lives, but they have also acquired an almost metaphysical aspect.A giant vajra, for example, looks as though wrapped in a shawl of windows and roofs — and Dangol invites the viewers to fill in the gaps, recognise and rediscover their own stories.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d134e9c7e80680e0a9917jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3360" height="2240">Sujan Dangol grew up in Mahabouddha near the Kathmandu Darbar Square when the historical towns of this emerald valley were still located along ridges with the slopes down to the rivers below devoted to agriculture.“I still remember the sights, sounds and smells of eating rice on the balcony during the minpachas holiday in winter,” adds Dangol, lamenting that today none of the things he used to enjoy as a child are accessible or possible.The concrete canopy of houses block out the sun, there are no public open spaces for children to run around in, there is the ever-present din of the city’s perpetual motion machine.These feelings of loss and nostalgia permeate all of Dangol’s exhibits. The artworks are rigorous and complex: each cityscape is meticulously drawn in pen and ink, filled with stark emotional and intellectual intensity. He recreates history and architecture in a visual language that is uniquely his, built on the bedrock of his own memories and infused with elements of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-legend-behind-the-myth-of-indra-jatra/">folklore</a>.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d13529c7e80680e0a9918jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1475" height="1125"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Big Bell is a rendition of the one that stands in <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/good-as-old-after-two-earthquakes/">Patan Darbar Square</a>, but its base is crammed with little houses and temples. Dark hills stretch behind, and at the feet of the monument are slabs that look like funeral ghat with black blobs spread about them.It is an ominous piece, foreboding. The sun casts a shadow behind itself and, on closer look, the roofs are bare and have holes in them with wooden beams poking out. The bell itself looks weary, the roof above it is worn out, and it is almost like a deep sigh escapes this 38x48 inch-frame with an overwhelming sense of loss.The other drawings evoke similar pathos. Carved Malla-era windows stand next to neoclassical doors, and somewhere in the middle are tall, flat and bare walls. But between them the galli is quiet and temple eaves have come undone. The ever-watchful eyes on the stupas look aged and tired, perhaps by the desolation they have witnessed.With the touch of pen and ink, Dangol reinvents a visual vernacular of memory and loss. But Dangol does not want the messaging to be too direct or blatant. He says: “I am not a heavily conceptual artist … if I start a piece with too much intention, it disrupts my workflow.”https://youtu.be/eF4hwcbBhsAProud of his Newa heritage, Dangol aspires to develop a new grammar for Nepali contemporary art that builds on the culture and skills that he grew up around and the relics of which are still present. There is no western influence here: the styles are borrowed from gardeners, woodcarvers, tailors, masons and brick-layers, and also the struts, carved windows and exteriors of abandoned buildings.“The cross-hatching in my drawings are inspired by my wife’s straw mats,” says Dangol. Miniature installations featuring straw mats and seeds by his wife, Sharmila Shrestha are also on exhibit in Tales of a City.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d13559c7e80680e0a9919jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3360" height="2240">Sujan Dangol traces the origin of this series to 2012, when as his graduation installation he built a city of 1,500 cardboard boxes and cartons of various brand names in the Nepal Art Council. The installation was complete with streets and roads that people could walk through and interact with. Architecture and heritage have since heavily influenced his art and outlook.“It takes over 500 or 1,000 years to build and develop an urban civilisation, and nurture its language, heritage, culture and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/exploring-nepals-culinary-diversity/">cuisine</a>,” says Dangol. “But when I look at Kathmandu today, I am saddened by the changes in the last 20-30 years, and especially following the 2015 <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/lessons-not-learned-from-2015/">earthquake</a>. This is not normal. Development and progress should be gradual, not disorganised.”Houses, says Dangol, are not just places of residence. The traditional brick, timber and tiles of the buildings with their carved wooden columns, windows and doors represent an <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/saving-the-intangible,3303">invaluable legacy and expression</a> of craft, history, experience and expectations that span generations.“Individual houses are just as important as temples,” he says. And a street of houses has a collective ambience, so <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/deconstructing-reconstruction/">heritage conservation</a> must look beyond just monuments to these ordinary neighbourhoods and their old dwellings that are being torn down to be replaced with concrete.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d13599c7e80680e0a991ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1500" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The bahal, falcha and hiti are being overrun with selfishness and greed, the accelerated consumerism and obsession with money do not value the history and heritage of Swoinga, Kathmandu Valley.Being passionate about literature, art and architecture, Dangol says depicting these changes in his drawings is an outlet for his aggravation with the accelerated and irreversible change happening all around.One particularly gloomy drawing is Kalki that depicts the deity, one of the ten avatar of Vishnu, with fiery hair and wings, riding a leaping horse above a city as contrails swirl behind him. Kalki looks straight at the viewer with a deeply unsettling expression on his face — the rage in his eyes is shared by his horse which has a chain of skulls looping around his neck.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022111016114/636d135e9c7e80680e0a991bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="849" height="1125"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Kalki is associated with destruction, and is the prophesied incarnation of Vishnu at the end of the current Kali Yug cycle of existence in Hindu cosmology. The destruction is followed by Satya Yug, when the chaos and darkness end.This is an important metaphor in Dangol’s drawing: destruction looming over a city, heritage on the verge of extinction. But, at the same time, Kalki is also the harbinger of cleansing and renewal.The exhibition ‘Tale of a City’ is open until 29 November at Siddhartha Art Gallery, Baber Mahal Revisted, Kathmandu.Read also: <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18013#.YZDNdlVByJA">Whose heritage is it anyway?</a>, Marit Bakke<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/a-time-to-every-purpose-occupation,3023">A time to every purpose</a>, Sahina Shrestha<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/restoring-a-piece-of-nepals-history/">Restoring a piece of Nepal's history</a>, Sahina Shrestha

1250x600

Between the lines with Sujan Dangol

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161120/636d17369c7e80680e0ac754jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800"/><figcaption>Patan's Bhaidega temple was destroyed in the 1934 megaquake, and had just started to be rebuilt 82 years later when the 2015 diaster struck and resources were diverted to other restoration. The three-storey shrine (in scaffolding) is now being reconstructed in the original design. Photo: AMIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure>When an 8.3 magnitude earthquake hit Kathmandu in 1934, a three-storey temple in Patan collapsed. Eighty-two years later, just as work had officially started to rebuild it, the 2015 earthquake hit central Nepal.The Bhaidega temple dedicated to Lord Shiva was built more than 350 years ago, but after it was destroyed in 1934, it was rebuilt with a much smaller Moghul style dome. Two months after work began in February 2015 to rebuild it in the original style, the earthquake destroyed much of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/Patan-town-as-a-museum-piece" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Patan Darbar Square</a>.The 2015 quake killed nearly 10,000 people, and many of the temple, monuments, and homes of Kathmandu Valley’s historic towns were destroyed. For the following two years, as priorities shifted, the reconstruction of Bhaidega was suspended so that the other temples could be restored first.“When the earthquake struck, the focus and priorities changed. There was an urgent need to rebuild the temples and monuments brought down by the earthquake,” recalls Rohit Ranjitkar of <a href="https://kvptnepal.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust (KVPT)</a>, which was leading the restoration of the temple. “So, Bhaidega took a back seat.”Six years after the 2015 quake, while the temples around it have come out of their scaffolding, the work on the Bhaidega is stalled because money has run out.The timeline for the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/good-as-old-after-two-earthquakes/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reconstruction of Bhaidega</a> is proof that restoration of quake-damaged monuments take a long time in Nepal, and tend to overlap each other.But earthquakes in Nepal also provide an opportunity to rediscover traditional seismic resistant construction methods, so they can be built back better, and revive ancient craftsmanship.What sets Bhaidega apart is that unlike the other temples of the Patan Darbar which were built by the Malla kings, it was put up by a commoner, Bharo Bhagirath Bhaiya in 1678. Historians believe Bhagirath Bhaiya was probably the first person in the Subcontinent to dedicate a temple to Vishweshwar after the desecration of the original shrine in Banaras nine years earlier.The Kashi Vishwanath temple in Banaras was destroyed on orders of Moghul emperor Aurangezeb. Ironically, after the 1934 earthquake, Bhaidega was rebuilt in the Moghul stucco dome architectural style that the rulers of Nepal copied.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161120/636d17389c7e80680e0ac755jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="534"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161120/636d173b9c7e80680e0ac756jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="547"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161120/636d173d9c7e80680e0ac757jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>“In the past, people did not really have a concept of conservation. The priority was to have a roof over the idol of the deity,” says Ranjitkar. “So, they rebuilt it anyhow, but it was important to rebuild in the original form.”<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/norway-restoration-project-patan-durbar-square-bhaidegah,2179" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Restoration work</a> actually had begun early as 2011 when well-wishers, conservation architects, historians, and community activists started to collect photos of Bhaidega taken eighty years before and traced to the collection of Felix Brandt in Germany. The photos show only partial facets of the original Bhaidega but was vital in estimating the size and outline of the temple.Detailed watercolour of the woodwork of the first-floor struts, cornices, and pillars made by Henry Ambrose Oldfield in 1853 were discovered in the British Museum. More importantly, carved wooden struts 4m tall, subsidiary struts, and pillars of the temple were discovered in the Patan Museum storeroom.All these provide clues for the reconstruction and designs for the missing wood carvings. With additional research, restoration architects could then draw up sketches of what the restored temple would look like.“When you look at the photos that are available, you can see that the carvings in Bhaidega are one of the best in the city if not the country,” says Indra Prasad Shilpakar, one of the master carvers working on the temple. “It showed us that we were on the right track, and it makes us proud that we are helping revive a part of Nepali art and history that was almost forgotten.”Rebuilding slowed after the 2015 earthquake because <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/saving-the-intangible,3303" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">other temples were also destroyed or damaged</a>, but the interruption was also an <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/learning-from-nepals-past-to-rebuild-its-future/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">opportunity to build back better</a>.“The earthquake gave us a chance to look at the foundation of Bhaidega which would not have happened if the earthquake had not hit,” says Ranjitkar.The plan was to rebuild on the original plinth, but upon inspection the team found that the foundation of the temple was weaker than what they had anticipated. Not only was it shallower but some of the stones used were round.“Rounder uncarved stones move around easily and are not structurally safe. This meant that we had to spend a lot of time and money to reinforce the foundation and make it stronger,” explains Ranjitkar.After 2015, funds and expertise were diverted to other monuments in the Valley as the country went into an emergency response mode. On the heritage front, Nepal faced a crisis of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/featured-videos/out-with-the-old-in-with-the-new/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">skilled artisans</a> to rebuild and restore collapsed and damaged monuments. This led to an increase in the cost of workers’ wages, timber, bricks, and other building materials.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161120/636d17419c7e80680e0ac758jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="995" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161120/636d17449c7e80680e0ac759jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="995" height="1000"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>In 2012, the preliminary cost estimate for the Bhaidega restoration was about Rs40 million. Within seven years, it had more than doubled to Rs90 million.Another temple in the Patan Darbar Square, the Harishankar shrine, similar in size to the original Bhaidega did not cost as much to restore because 80% of its carved wooden columns, struts, eaves were retrieved after the temple collapsed.In the case of Bhaidega, much of the wood carvings need to be replicated and built anew, which takes up the bulk of the expense, expertise, and time. Additionally, Bhaidega also needs extensive bricklaying, roof tiles, terracotta, and repairs and gilding of the original pinnacle.Because of the overwhelming need to <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/In-perfect-harmony,3251" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rebuild other temples and monuments</a> destroyed in 2015, Bhaidega was not a priority for donors and the government.“We approached the government for timber at the official rate, but the Forest Ministry did not even grant us that,” says Prithvi Pande, who is the chair of the Cultural Heritage Preservation Group, a citizen’s group. “The government talks about importance of heritage and tourism but can’t even provide wood to rebuild our temples.”A big part of the rebuilding cost has been borne by Pande and his colleagues.  Before the earthquake, the Norwegian Embassy contributed to the shortfall in the initial cost estimate. After the earthquake, other private citizens and the Lalitpur Municipality also supported the cause. But funds have now dried up, while prices have skyrocketed.Ranjitkar of KVPT says the work on restoration has slowed, and there is a budget shortfall of more than Rs30 million.To ensure that the restoration makes up for lost time, the KVPT team worked through the pandemic, following safety protocols. Only the first floor has so far been completed and work is ongoing on the second tier.Most of the wood carving work for the doors, windows, columns, including the lower cornices have been completed.Says Ranjitkar, “If we get the required amount, we can finish rebuilding in 10-12 months. But it is going to get more expensive the longer it takes.”To Donate:Bank Account name: Sanskritik Sampada Samrakshan SamuhaBank and Account no: 040-0103-0250856, Nepal Investment Bank, Lagankhel Branch, Lalitpur<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161120/636d17479c7e80680e0ac75ajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1200" height="800"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>_________________<h2>Who was Bhagirath Bhaiya?</h2>Bhagirath Bhaiya was a commoner who served as prime minister of the kingdom of Patan for 16 years during the reign of King Srinivas Malla. Known for his philanthropy, he was a reputed military commander and fought in battles in Makwanpur and elsewhere.He donated much land, upgraded the town’s facilities, and repaired temples in Patan and Pharping. In 1678, he built the Bhaidega temple replicating a Shiva lingam at the Kashi Vishwanath in Banaras which was destroyed nine years earlier.For the inauguration of the temple, he also built the pavilion of Lampati that still stands today across the street south of Bhaidega. It was from here that invited Kings and nobility watched the consecration of the temple. The guests included the royalty of Patan, Bhaktapur King Jitamitra and his brother Ugra Malla, King of Kathmandu Nripendra Malla and his brothers Mahipatindra and Parthivendra. Even the king of Tanahu Bhaiya Rudra Sen was invited.King Srinivas held Bhagirath Bhaiya in great esteem, and this is evident in an inscription dating 1674 at Matsyendranāth Temple, where he asks the public ‘to make no distinction between him and me’.But the elevation of Bhagirath Bhaiya did not sit well with some members of the nobility, especially Yoganarendra Malla who was envious of the former. Having consolidated power in the court, they stripped him of his position in 1685. There are written records that Bhagirath Bhaiya was ‘dragged all the way from his residence (to the palace)’.A year later, King Yoganarendra Malla usurped power from his father, and had Bhagirath Bhaiya killed.

Sahina Shrestha

Restoring a piece of Nepal’s history

<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110914114/636ba5809c7e80680e0736cdjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1334"/><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110914114/636ba58a9c7e80680e0736cejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1333"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110914114/636ba58d9c7e80680e0736cfjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1333"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110914114/636ba5919c7e80680e0736d0jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1365"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110914114/636ba5949c7e80680e0736d1jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2048" height="1365"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110914114/636ba5979c7e80680e0736d2jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1332"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110914114/636ba59b9c7e80680e0736d3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1334"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110914114/636ba59e9c7e80680e0736d4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1398"><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110914114/636ba5a19c7e80680e0736d5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2000" height="1333">Photos: Bikram Rai and Monika Deupala

COVID-19 mutes Krishna festival in Kathmandu

<figure><img width="800" height="1067" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101144/636a25c59c7e80680e0439ddjpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: HANS HOFER</figcaption></figure>Communities in Kathmandu Valley’s historic towns have revived age-old traditions and craftsmanship to rebuild after every earthquake in the past. The disasters provided the opportunity to revitalise ancient art, architecture, traditional techniques for wood carving and metal work. Nearly four years after the 2015 earthquake monuments like the Patan Museum (above) are examples of Kathmandu Valley’s living heritage that attract pilgrims and tourists.Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/?p=21144&amp;preview=true" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Learning from Nepal's past to rebuild its future</a>, Prakriti Kandel<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/deconstructing-reconstruction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Deconstructing reconstruction</a>, Alok Tuladhar <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/bhaktapur-shows-the-way-by-rebuilding-itself/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bhaktapur shows the way by rebuilding itself</a>, Suyog Prajapati<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/piece-by-piece-patan-darbar-square-reconstruction,3782/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Piece by piece</a>, Sahina Shrestha<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/owning-our-past-heritage,3461" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Owning up to our past</a>, Sahina Shrestha<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101144/636a25c89c7e80680e0439dejpeg.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="132">

Our past is our future

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csrbcdCBW4IIt has been nearly four years after the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Monumental-loss,2215" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2015 earthquake</a>, and media reports about reconstruction of damaged buildings is mostly negative: compensation is too little too late, it has not reached the neediest, and the process is too bureaucratic.Indeed, only a fraction of the 700,000 buildings destroyed have been rebuilt with government help. Since the money is not enough, families are building small sheds so they can receive their third tranche.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/deconstructing-reconstruction/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Deconstructing reconstruction</a>, Alok TuladharHowever, in Kathmandu Valley’s historic towns, communities have revived age-old traditions and craftsmanship to rebuild after the earthquake just like their ancestors did after every previous disaster. In fact, along with tourism, earthquakes have provided the opportunity to revitalise ancient art, architecture, traditional techniques for wood carving and metal work.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a25d39c7e80680e0439e3jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="132"/>“Earlier, it would not be possible to study the interiors of heritage structures, but the earthquake gave us the chance not just for building back stronger, but also for detailed research of how our ancestors knew about seismic resistant building designs,” says conservationist Alok Tuladhar.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a25d59c7e80680e0439e4jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="786"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>One of the most dramatic examples of this is the reconstruction of the three-storey <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/restoring-bhai-dega-temple-in-patan,4046" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bhaidega Temple</a> in <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/patan-museum-updated,1304" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Patan Darbar Square</a>, which was razed in the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=5065" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1934 megaquake</a>, and had been rebuilt with a Moghul stucco dome. Reconstruction in the original Malla style had just begun 80 years later, when the 2015 earthquake struck.Nearby, the Char Narayan and Hari Shankar temples were reduced to rubble, and ancient pati (traditional rest houses) came down. Today, most of the damaged monuments have either been rebuilt or are covered in scaffolding (right).Leading Patan’s restoration work is the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust (<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2017/04/26/story-of-a-temple-rising/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KVPT</a>), which was supervising Bhaidega and other reconstruction even before the 2015 earthquake. KVPT’s architect Rohit Ranjitkar says the earthquake four years ago provided the opportunity to learn more about <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/In-perfect-harmony,3251" target="_blank" rel="noopener">traditional construction methods</a> so they could be revived.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a25d89c7e80680e0439e5jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933">In KVPT’s workshop in the Patan Darbar gardens, a dozen woodcarvers are busy with their chisels and mallets renovating damaged eaves and columns from the temples, and also carving new ones to replace missing originals. The descendants of famous artisans are carrying on their family professions and rebuilding after 2015, just like their forebears did after 1934, 1866, 1833 and other destructive earthquakes that struck Kathmandu Valley in the past.KVPT’s reconstruction philosophy is to retain as much of the original pieces as possible, so woodcarvers work carefully to graft pieces salvaged from the rubble, ensuring that the fresh carvings perfectly complement the darker brown hues of the original wood structure.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a25da9c7e80680e0439e6jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="934">One of the carvers, Pratap Shilpakar, takes a break and tells us, “I feel honoured and proud to contribute to help preserve our heritage, and to repair these precious artifacts that were carved by my forefathers.” Shilpakar was working in his personal handicraft shop in Bhaktapur before being recruited by KVPT for the intricate task of repairing the originals.Off the 17th century Pimbaha Pukhu at Sulima Chok is a small temple where the four columns holding up the roof are from different centuries. Heritage expert Anil Chitrakar points them out: “Each of these columns are from a different era, recarved after every earthquake. Our ancestors knew how to improvise and rebuild as they went along.”To be sure, <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/traditions-dying-off-in-patan-temple-courtyard-as-young-generation-leave" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not many young Newa people today are too keen</a> on taking up their ancestral profession of wood carving, which needs life-long devotion and instruction to master. However, after 2015 there is renewed interest in preserving the built environment and Kathmandu Valley’s intangible heritage. Says Chitrakar: "As long as there is a critical mass of artisans to take it to the next generation, the craftsmanship will survive."Shilpakar (whose surname means ‘craftsman’) admits he has learned more about ancient styles and techniques while reconstructing Patan’s monuments -- skills that he can incorporate into his handicraft business, now that tourism is on the rebound. Reconstruction has also been a financial boost for carvers after plummeting business post-earthquake.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a25df9c7e80680e0439e7jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="934">Besides woodworkers, the earthquake also helped revive artisans who worked on bronze as they repaired the gajur pinnacles damaged in 2015. Masons and clay workers who specialised in traditional dachi appa bricks have also got new business after the earthquake.Studies prove that structures which had been maintained regularly before the quake suffered minimal damage. Conservation is therefore an ongoing exercise, and important not just for a regular flow of skills amongst artisans, but also safety in preparation for the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/aint-seen-nothing-yet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">next big earthquake</a>.KVPT’s Ranjitkar says, “We apply the principle of minimal intervention to improve safety features of buildings, because human life comes first. The damage in the 2015 earthquake gave us further insight about the weak points that we need to work to strengthen.”Read also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/bhaktapur-shows-the-way-by-rebuilding-itself/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bhaktapur shows the way by rebuilding itself</a>, Suyog Prajapati<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/kathmandu-monumental-rivalry,4209" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A monumental rivalry</a>, Om Astha Rai<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/piece-by-piece-patan-darbar-square-reconstruction,3782/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Piece by piece</a>, Sahina Shrestha<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/owning-our-past-heritage,3461" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Owning up to our past</a>, Sahina Shrestha<h2>A tale of two cities</h2>Of the ancient kingdom towns of Kathmandu Valley, <a style="background-color: #ffffff; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/piece-by-piece-patan-darbar-square-reconstruction,3782/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Patan</a> and <a style="background-color: #ffffff; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/bhaktapur-shows-the-way-by-rebuilding-itself/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bhaktapur</a>  have made the most progress in reconstruction because of the involvement of local communities and the activism of organisations like KVPT.It is in Kathmandu, the seat of the national government and led by a <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/editorial/state-of-confusion-kathmandu-mayor,4094" target="_blank" rel="noopener">weak mayor</a>, where the progress in rebuilding monuments have been slowest. The government has waited four years to decide on the reconstruction of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/On-the-way-up/untie-the-knot-in-heritage-reconstruction,862" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kasthamandap</a> and <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/on-queens-pond-rani-pokhari,4092" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rani Pokhari</a>. It blundered in trying to rebuild them with concrete, ignoring traditional design styles.<a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/kathmandu-monumental-rivalry,4209" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rivalry among donors</a> like China and the United States which have vied for high-visibility reconstruction projects in Hanuman Dhoka and Darbar School have also put additional pressure on the municipality.<img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a25e39c7e80680e0439e8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="786">Patan heritage activist Ram Prasad Amatya, 80, shakes his head comparing his town with Kathmandu: “After four years, the Rani Pokhari and the temples in Kathmandu are still in ruins. The central government has no love or ownership for our heritage.”In stark contrast, Patan has not just rebuilt inner-city tanks like Pimbaha Pukhu, but the reconstruction has revived the entire neighbourhood, attracting new <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Heritage-homes-in-Kathmandu,3400" target="_blank" rel="noopener">homestay tourists</a> and giving locals an open space with a relaxing ambience.Says heritage activist Alok Tuladhar: “Whatever has worked in post-quake reconstruction in Patan or Bhaktapur have been achieved by local communities. The national government has bungled everything it has tried to push in Kathmandu.”<h2>Dharma Bajracharya's dharma</h2>Woodcarver gradually recovers his trade after the hard challenges of the 2015 earthquake<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a25e69c7e80680e0439e9jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Despite new tools and automation, Nepal’s artisans have gone back to <a style="background-color: #ffffff; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/a-craving-for-carving,3637" target="_blank" rel="noopener">traditional methods to rebuild monuments</a> destroyed and damaged in the 2015 earthquake.In the Chwechhen neighbourhood of Patan, detailed carvings adorn almost every piece of architecture. A crumbling old temple in the square has now been lovingly and painstakingly restored to its former glory, using old techniques, raw materials and tools.Dharma Dutta Bajracharya (pictured, above) is one of the woodcarvers, and has been chiselling figures of deities into wood since he started as an apprentice to learn the craft from his father at age 13.Woodcarvers like Bajracharya lost much of their business when the earthquake and Indian Blockade reduced tourist traffic to a trickle. Luckily, the disaster turned out to be boost because of the demand for reconstruction using traditional techniques that generations of <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/half-full/relearning-build-better,1118" target="_blank" rel="noopener">woodcarvers</a> have passed down to the present day.The eldest of four brothers in his family, 43-year-old Bajracharya’s upbringing was tough. “Money was tight so you either learnt the trade or you went to school, not both,” he recalls. He was the only brother interested in <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/training-woodcarvers-to-restore-the-future,3586" target="_blank" rel="noopener">woodcarving</a>, but he now fears that these skills will end with his generation because his son is not interested in carving.Bajracharya says these are skills that you cannot just be trained for, they need to be learned from a very young age. It is not just the skill and craft, he adds, but a whole culture of devotion that imbues a piece of wood with divine attributes.Younger children in the neighbourhood now wear smart uniforms and go off to school every morning. Few have time to learn the old crafts, and it is not taught in school. Bajracharya admits he wants his son to be happy, and perhaps it is just as well he does not get encumbered with a dying profession.But despite the difficulties, Bajracharya still takes great pride in his profession and it shows in his craftsmanship. “I’ve done this for 30 years, and the carvings on the reconstructed monuments will be passed down for the next generation to enjoy.”With all the rebuilding around the corner, and Visit Nepal Year 2020 reviving hopes of tourism, Bajracharya has reason to be hopeful.Taylor Mason<h2>Heritage hotel</h2><figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221108101148/636a25e99c7e80680e0439eajpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="934"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Earthquakes may have preserved Kathmandu Valley’s culture in the past, but recent times it was tourism that kept the craftsmanship alive. One of the prime examples of this is <a href="http://dwarikas.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dwarika’s Hotel</a> in Kathmandu that is more like a museum of Newa devotional art than a hotel.At the peak of Kathmandu Valley’s heritage destruction in the 1970s, founder <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=1181#.XFwC5FUzaUk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dwarika Das Shrestha</a> roamed the city streets salvaging carved windows, columns and eaves. As the city itself turned into concrete, Shrestha embedded the priceless elements into a new hotel that started in 1977. Today, the award-winning hotel is an example of how tourism can help preserve heritage.Shrestha also employed local artisans to carve extra windows and doorways and thus kept the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/rebuilding-temples-a-chance-to-creat-jobs-and-to-revive-woodcarving-industry%20,2347" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tradition of woodcarving</a> alive. Along with collected woodwork, carpenters created the hotel’s furniture, traditional brick-making skills were used for terracotta work.  Today, many more Kathmandu hotels, even private residences, have emulated the Dwarika’s model of preserving traditional motifs.

Learning from Nepal's past to rebuild its future

Patan’s ongoing chariot festival is one of the most dramatic and instagrammable festivals in the world<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/2022110710118/6368cafd9c7e80680e02f348jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1400" height="933"/><figcaption>Gopen Rai</figcaption></figure>The great chariot festival of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Red-rain-god,3141">Karunamaya</a> has begun, bringing with it the mandatory, and much anticipated, summer rain. The festival is celebrated by Valley residents and the people of Yala (Patan) with such enthusiasm that one cannot help but want to make sure the whole world knows about it, and bring them to Patan to join the festivities.While mountaineers head for the peaks this pre-monsoon season, the rest of the country and Kathmandu sees a decrease in tourist arrivals after the spring peak. The month-long festival of Karunamaya (Bunga Dyo, Rato Machindranath, Adi Lokeswara, or whatever other names you want to call it) should be marketed to the rest of Nepal and the world. Patan could probably make a whole year’s worth of income in a month if this was properly done.Nepal often makes international headlines for the wrong reasons: natural disasters or political upheavals.We need to get out some good news as well. The Chariot festival is one of the most dramatic and Instagrammable festivals in the world, comparable to bull-running in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamplona">Pamplona</a>.Patan has a lot more to offer. Jitendra Shrestha and Prakash Dhakhwa have spent a good part of their creative efforts and resources to convert their own houses into high end home-stays and helped neighbors to do the same.Check out <a href="https://cosynepal.com/">Cosy Nepal</a> to see the wonderful spaces that the visitor can call their home away from home, in Patan. <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=12050#.Wt6lbxuFO70">Newa Chen</a> has rooms, gallery and performing spaces. The visitor can also see how the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Patandurbarsquare-fitforaking-renovation,786">Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust</a>, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/kundadixit/2010/08/17/good-job/">Rohit Ranjitkar</a> and their team of artists are restoring the monuments like <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/restoring-bhai-dega-temple-in-patan,4046">Bhai Dega</a> at the <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/page/Patan-town-as-a-museum-piece">Patan Durbar Square</a> after earthquakes of the past.Patan today has eating places, there are enough hotels in the outskirts of the historical core area, the city has trained young people who can help guide the visitors, and has even launched an app so you can walk about Patan with the help of your phone. Patan, with the help of <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/blogs/thebrief/2014/10/05/devoted-to-painting/">Lok Chitrakar</a>, has just freshly painted the gate at Patan Dhoka with the iconic depiction of the eight Asta-matrika mother goddesses who protect the city against anything bad that could befall this ancient settlement.At Pim Baha, <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/Heritage-homes-in-Kathmandu,3400">Shailendra Shrestha</a>, who operates Taaja Pha bed and breakfast, is there to take you through at least 2,300 years of history of the neighbourhood, the Ashok Stupa and the ancient pond. Please take time out to go to the neighbourhood in the evening when the illuminated temple is reflected in the waters.The chariot festival of Karunamaya is made of numerous facets that could be of interest to the world travelers. The open spaces, historical ponds, the families and guilds that make the chariot, the various species of timber and plants/flowers involved and offered, the musical instruments, rituals and feasts.The great festival keeps Patan a united community, and this is probably the biggest value created. It is not a small task to pull the great chariot through the lanes of Patan despite all odds. People’s participation is a term much used in development literature, but if you want to see what it really means, you have to come and see for yourself. The energy, the care, respect and sense of purpose of the faithful illustrate what people working together can achieve.The legends, folklores, history and anecdotes associated with the chariot festival are also of great interest. It consists of kings, naga mythical snakes, farmers, and of course, hidden treasures. There is deceit and integrity and suspense which ensure that each year there is a really good reason to come together and rebuild the chariot and have the festival again and again.So much has changed over the last 15 centuries in Nepal, the Kathmandu Valley and Patan, but the chariot festival of Karunamaya or Bunga Dyo goes on. No disaster like the earthquake of 2015, no political changes like the end of monarchy in 2006, have disrupted the festival that is an integral part of one of Nepal’s (and world’s) truly intangible heritages.Anil Chitrakar is President of SiddharthincRead Also:<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/saving-the-intangible,3303">Preserving the intangible</a>, Chandani KC<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/old-traditions-new-meanings-kartik-nach,3355">Old traditions, new meanings</a><a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=12050">They deserved to be preserved</a>, Kunda Dixit

Anil Chitrakar

Marketing the intangible

James Harris (‘Jim’) Simons, the mathematician and billionaire philanthropist who set up a foundation to improve Nepal’s healthcare system, died in New York on 10 May, aged 86. Jim Simons was an award-winning mathematician who pioneered quantitative investing and gave away much of his billions to support mathematics education, scientific research and various humanitarian causes. But his life was marked by family tragedies. His elder son, Paul, was killed in New York in 1996 in a traffic accident, and his younger son, Nick drowned in Bali in 2003 after a volunteering stint in Nepal.&nbsp; Nick Simons had written letters home from Nepal about his experience in rural health posts, and was determined to become a physician so he could help the underprivileged in poorer parts of the world.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240511120528_08e9e9ec5b9faa6a852fb5a4b5a8586526935cb8a9c8c61fd329fb8e4d7466e4.png" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20240511120528_08e9e9ec5b9faa6a852fb5a4b5a8586526935cb8a9c8c61fd329fb8e4d7466e4" data-rendition-name="original" width="596" height="812" loading="lazy" alt="Nick Simons"> <figcaption>Nick Simons with a friend in Nepal in 2003. He died soon after while swimming in Bali.</figcaption> </figure>  After Nick’s tragic death, Jim Simons and his economist wife Marilyn travelled to Nepal several times to set up the <a href="https://www.nsi.edu.np/overview" target="_blank">Nick Simons Institute (NSI)</a> to back up government hospitals in rural areas with training, equipment and budgetary support. Since it was established in 2006, NSI has invested more than $100 million in Nepal’s health sector and now supports 45 district hospitals and health facilities. Most of the institute’s work is behind-the-scenes and not visible to the public, like its help with training nurses and anaesthesiologists, maintaining biomedical equipment, and in retaining qualified medical staff in remote rural hospitals by topping up salaries. <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=11436" target="_blank">Jim Simons once told Nepali Times</a>: "Rural health care is not a new problem in Nepal, and there are lots of people addressing the issue. What makes NSI unique is that it will do this job better than it has ever been done with an emphasis on quality and training.” Indeed, the Simons made several visits to Nepal in 2003 soon after their son died, talking to health experts to see where support would be most catalytic and meaningful. They decided to do this not by running their own hospitals, but by working with the government in developing sustainable solutions in rural healthcare and scaling it up. "With the establishment of the Nick Simon's Institute in 2006, Jim was clearly a game changer for enhancement of rural health in Nepal. &nbsp;Also what is unforgettable about Jim was his amazing sense of humor in telling a story, his sharp intellect, and how he did not suffer fools lightly," says <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18356" target="_blank">Buddha Basnyat</a>, a physician who is in the executive committee of NSI. The Simons often said they would probably never have been involved in Nepal’s health sector had it not been for their son Nick, who had found fulfilment helping Nepalis and wanted to return to live and work here.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240511020556_761b7ed7926bbf26b24c5e8ab06df077019280451bc1d4efc5bd3c5d44e740bb.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20240511020556_761b7ed7926bbf26b24c5e8ab06df077019280451bc1d4efc5bd3c5d44e740bb" data-rendition-name="original" width="904" height="1382" loading="lazy" alt="Jim Simons NT"> <figcaption>Marilyn and Jim Simons in Nepal in 2023 with Patty Weisenfeld of Nick Simons Foundation. Photo: KUNDA DIXIT</figcaption> </figure>  Jim Simons went through three phases in his life: as a mathematician, an investor and a philanthropist. As a maths professor, he found solutions that are still used to solve problems in physics and astronomy. He then set up <a href="https://www.rentec.com/Home.action?about=true" target="_blank">Renaissance Technologies</a> that used his talent in mathematics to analyse complex financial data and forecast global share markets. That is how he made billions, much of which he re-invested in improving STEM education in American schools, in exploring the universe, or trying to find the causes of autism. After the death of his sons, Jim Simons sought solace in solving mathematical puzzles in his head. One morning at the leafy Summit Hotel in Kathmandu, the proof came to him in a flash of a puzzle that had bedevilled him for a long time.&nbsp; ‘Jim was an exceptional leader who did transformative work in mathematics and developed a world-leading investment company,’ the <a href="https://www.simonsfoundation.org/2024/05/10/simons-foundation-co-founder-mathematician-and-investor-jim-simons-dies-at-86/" target="_blank">Simons Foundation</a> said in a statement announcing his death on Friday. Besides NSI, the <a href="https://www.nicksimonsfoundation.org/" target="_blank">Nick Simons Foundation</a> was involved in other health-related activities in Nepal, including building the new <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=15138" target="_blank">maternity wing at Patan Hospital</a> and supporting <a href="https://www.nyayahealthnepal.org/" target="_blank">Nyaya Health Nepal (NHN)</a> that runs <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-s-rural-lifeline" target="_blank">Bayalpata Hospital in Achham District.</a>&nbsp; Jim Simons once said: “Nick opened up a whole new world to us. We have met so many wonderful people who otherwise we never would have known. Nepal is a gift that Nick gave us.”

Jim Simons' gift to Nepal

Kapuche used to be a meadow where herders from the valley below brought buffaloes and goats to graze in summer. &nbsp; The name itself is derived from the Gurung words ‘kah’ (ice), ‘phu’ (tumbling), and ‘che’ (flat land), perfectly describing what happens here: ice avalanches tumble 5,000m from the peaks of Annapurna directly down to the pasture. &nbsp; In 2001, small ponds started forming on the accumulated ice. Global warming has now melted the ice, and Kapuche is a turquoise lake shimmering like a jewel below Lamjung Himal, Annapurna II and IV and Sikles Peak.&nbsp; The lake is situated at 2,450m, and is tucked away in such a deep valley that none of those peaks are visible from its shore. A two hour walk below the lake is Hugu Goth, a cattle shed where herders used to stay summers as livestock grazed in the succulent grass. As a boy 42 years ago, I used to walk here barefoot from Sikles on school excursions to learn about the mountain ecosystem. Global warming had not yet melted the ice, so buffaloes and goats could cross over to the other side to graze. The winter snow used to come like clockwork in January when families in Sikles celebrated Maghe Sankranti. Monsoons were regular with three months of relentless rain and mist. Winters are now dry, and the monsoons have become erratic. I did my master’s in national parks and tourism in New Zealand and a doctorate in conservation tourism in Australia, and am interested in how climate change impacts the Himalaya, especially my home region below the Annapurnas.&nbsp; I next travelled to Kapuche in 2015. By then, the lake was &nbsp;constantly fed by avalanches and glacial melt flowing down from the cliffs above. &nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240503110552_96d13e7b1db5de33e3fb7e6112ad4189aee05f69fef498849f4995863a479991.jpg" data-media-id="editor_0" data-image-id="20240503110552_96d13e7b1db5de33e3fb7e6112ad4189aee05f69fef498849f4995863a479991" data-rendition-name="original" width="2560" height="1920" loading="lazy" alt="aerial view"> <figcaption>An aerial view of Kapuche from a sightseeing aircraft of Avia Club Nepal. PHOTO: AVIA CLUB NEPAL</figcaption> </figure>  Nearly 10 years later, we visited Kapuche again last week, and noticed that the lake had grown dramatically bigger with icebergs floating on the surface. Above, the escarpments of Annapurna IV appear to have much less ice than in 2015. With us was the Chair of the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) Management Committee of Parche Village and MP Man Bahadur Gurung who has also noticed many changes here over the years.&nbsp; Hugu Goth used to have half a dozen families growing maize, beans and potatoes, and tending to their animals. It was here that French filmmaker Eric Valli and Diane Summers captured the portraits of the two herders and hunters, Bhim Bahadur Gurung and Mej Bahadur Gurung in their classic 1988 book Honey Hunters of Nepal which also became a documentary.&nbsp; With outmigration and as trekking took off, some herders converted their buffalo sheds into lodges, and there are now six inns in Kapuche and three in Hugu. Footfalls have also increased because of the 45MW hydropower plant under construction nearby along the headwaters of the Madi River.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240503110556_27f92b4cd1b2925ea89b8d2f949c90d04f8167b1551e694e6946eca023256c41.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20240503110556_27f92b4cd1b2925ea89b8d2f949c90d04f8167b1551e694e6946eca023256c41" data-rendition-name="original" width="4032" height="2268" loading="lazy" alt="kahphuche"> <figcaption>Dogs are a constant companions during the Sikles-Kapuche trek and lounge on the shores of the lake. The hike is increasingly popular with international trekkers.</figcaption> </figure>  Locals here recall that avalanches used to be more frequent in the past, probably because there was more snow. Boating is prohibited due to the danger of falling ice, but some trekkers bring rafts anyway. The water is ice-cold, still this does not deter adventurous ones to swim out to the middle of the lake to celebrate reaching their destination. The forests are lush due to the heavy rainfall as well as moisture from powder snow avalanches. The thick woods teem with wildlife, and are alive with birdcalls. The Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) is the largest protected area in Nepal and an Important Bird and Biodiversity Area, as well as a Key Biodiversity Area.&nbsp; ACA has designed a survey form for visitors to monitor avalanches that they may witness. The ACA Management Committee keeps track of the lake's shape and size with the help of citizen scientists Prakash Gurung and Dhan Bahadur Gurung who run lodges on the shore.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240503110556_2cddc5ae01b220e61fc0ee0ff7b5bde4b18b15cb162dce73ce5e20943f0af572.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240503110556_2cddc5ae01b220e61fc0ee0ff7b5bde4b18b15cb162dce73ce5e20943f0af572" data-rendition-name="original" width="2268" height="4032" loading="lazy" alt="kahphuche"> <figcaption>Lush forest trails along the way from Sikles to Kapuche.</figcaption> </figure>  The colour of the lake changes constantly, from crystal blue in winter to green as the snow starts to melt, and turns a turbid grey during the monsoon.&nbsp; Just three hours by car from Pokhara, Sikles is drawing domestic and international visitors to experience its rich Gurung heritage, as well as enjoy the scenery of this relatively less crowded trekking area. Sikles also inspired the concept of sustainable ecotourism for Nepal's conservation areas. The village was awarded UNDP’s Equator Initiative Prize in 2014.&nbsp; After the wilderness trek to Kapuche, Sikles is a good place to immerse in the culture and learn about indigenous conservation practices of the Gurung people.&nbsp; <h2>Kapuche, here we come</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240503100512_90595c777bdc82ba608651241d14abfc9b7ea137e77df5cf617fe2e3f3580bf7.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20240503100512_90595c777bdc82ba608651241d14abfc9b7ea137e77df5cf617fe2e3f3580bf7" data-rendition-name="original" width="1358" height="712" loading="lazy" alt="kah pu che"> <figcaption>Kapuche Lake in 2015 and April 2024, showing changes in the avalanche fan, icebergs and snow cover on the mountains. </figcaption> </figure>  Nowhere in Nepal is there such an accessible place to observe first-hand the impact of climate breakdown, while also being a popular trekking destination.&nbsp; Kapuche Lake, only an 8-hour hike from Sikles which itself is three hours up by jeep from Pokhara, is the lowest glacial lake in Nepal and offers a vivid demonstration of just how rapidly the Himalayan ice-cap is melting. Selfies and videos posted by visitors on social media platforms in recent years have popularised the trek and lake, bringing ever more domestic and foreign tourists to the site. Most glacial lakes in the Himalaya are at elevations between 4,500-5,500m and need a week of trekking to get to, but Kapuche is located at only 2,450m at the bottom of a deep avalanche funnel directly below Annapurna II.&nbsp; Some scientists say Kapuche cannot even be called a glacial lake because it just collects water from frequent avalanches that thunder down from the vast snowfield at 7,500m between Annapurna II and IV.&nbsp; Most Himalayan lakes are moraine-dammed proglacial lakes, or are supra-glacial ponds that started forming after the Little Ice Age 700 years ago, a natural process that was accelerated by anthropogenic greenhouse gas buildup in the atmosphere after the Industrial Era. Kapuche was only an avalanche fan till a Landsat image in 2001 showed that small ponds had formed in the debris field. Since then, the ponds have merged into a lake that has grown tenfold in size to measure 15 hectares and is now more than 32m deep in some sections. A video posted on YouTube in January 2021 of a massive powder snow avalanche preceded by an air blast that swept down to the lake went viral. Since then, tourists flocked to Kapuche hoping to be lucky enough to take selfies of another avalanche, with some even venturing into the dangerous debris fan on the other side of the lake. So many visitors visit Kapuche now that there are lodges by the shore, as well as some canine guides who came here with trekkers and never went back because they enjoy the fresh mountain air. <h2>How to get there</h2>  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240503110552_edcf019d5a8b6551041bbba2de6dad9bb0709048b17c8cdcf41125830395e9b5.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20240503110552_edcf019d5a8b6551041bbba2de6dad9bb0709048b17c8cdcf41125830395e9b5" data-rendition-name="original" width="1085" height="801" loading="lazy" alt="kahphuche map"> </figure>  - Fly or drive to Pokhara, and take the turnoff to Sikles for a 3 hour ride over a newly paved road. Only the last section after Khilang is still rough.&nbsp; - Spend a night in one of the many lodges in Sikles, and explore this well-preserved Gurung village and birthplace of conservationist Chandra Gurung. - Start scenic hike with spectacular views of Annapurna II and Lamjung Himal. -The trail follows the Madi Khola which drains Kapuche Lake. - A 5 hour walk brings you to Hugu Goth for the night stop at the cattle shed-turned-lodge. &nbsp; - It is a 2 hour hike to Kapuche Lake past construction site of a 25MW hydropower plant.&nbsp; &nbsp;- Camp by the shore or stay in one of the lodges, or hike back to Hugu.&nbsp; &nbsp;- Back to Sikles for ride down to Pokhara. Side trip on return: At Hugu, cross the Madi and climb up to Kori Peak (3,800m) with its high meadows for a magnificent view of Lamjung Himal. Need camping gear. Descend to Sikles. Cost: Rs5,000 per day for meals and room. Foreigners charged $50 for ACA and Trekking Permits. Transport from Kathmandu or Pokhara extra.

Kah Phu Che

Unlike tens of thousands of refugees from Bhutan, Govinda Rijal had <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/real-refugees-want-to-go-back-to-bhutan" target="_blank">no inclination to apply for third-country repatriation</a>. Even when his parents Chandra Lal and Devi Maya decided to join the 90,000 refugees resettled in the United States 15 years ago, he <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/elderly-left-in-bhutan-refugee-camp" target="_blank">remained behind in Nepal.</a> He excelled in studies, went to Kyoto and the Philippines to get a PhD in rice research, and was a professor at the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science at Tribhuvan University. Govinda’s parents arrived on the Nepal border in Indian trucks after the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/japan-award-for-bhutan-minister-opposed" target="_blank">Bhutan regime drove out</a> nearly 100,000 Nepali-speaking citizens in 1992. The Lhotsampa, as the refugees were called, were consigned to <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=18150#.YN1-Ny8RoWr" target="_blank">eight refugee camps in eastern Nepal</a>. Govinda stayed on in Bhutan, determined not to abandon his beloved homeland. But the persecution and threats became untenable, and at age 22 he himself left in February 1993 tracking his parents down to a bamboo hut in Beldangi refugee camp of Jhapa district.&nbsp; Outside his pleasant and relaxed exterior Govinda harboured a fierce fire for justice and human rights which he expressed in poetry and activism. He was involved in the Peace March in 1996 to walk to Thimphu, but was arrested by Indian police right after crossing the Mechi Bridge to be detained in Jalpaiguri Jail. After Bhutan, Nepal was Govinda’s second home — the land of his forebears. And it was here last week on 5 May that he was tragically killed at age 52 when a commuter bus overturned and careened into a sidewalk where he was standing.&nbsp; Govinda had just taken a selfie with his long-lost former college classmate Suman Bandhu Koirala with whom he used to organise nationwide Mathematics Olympiads. The two had not seen each other for 20 years after Suman Bandhu went for his PhD in the United States.&nbsp; Unlike other students who paid no heed to stateless classmates from Bhutan like Rijal, Koirala was different. &nbsp;The two had lost touch, but met again on Sunday, 5 May at the Tribhuvan University campus in Kirtipur.&nbsp; “We hadn’t met for such a long time, and chatted all day, reminiscing about our student days and planned to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/who-stands-with-bhutanese-refugees-in-nepal" target="_blank">spread awareness about the Bhutan refugee</a> issue,” Suman Bandhu recalls, his voice breaking with emotion.&nbsp; It was just before 3PM and the two decided to take a selfie on the pavement in front of the Ayurved Hospital in Kirtipur. Just then, a scooter sped out of the parking lot into the main road, an approaching commuter bus that swerved to avoid it overturned, slithering sideways on the asphalt into people on the sidewalk.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240510040524_83e30321d778d5b8e7c609538a2b3f3eaccf1c6b7b9245cb1762e8700990e859.png" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="20240510040524_83e30321d778d5b8e7c609538a2b3f3eaccf1c6b7b9245cb1762e8700990e859" data-rendition-name="original" width="1998" height="1028" loading="lazy" alt="Bhutanese refugee freak accident"> <figcaption>The sidewalk outside the Ayurved Hospital at Kiritpur where the bus hit Govinda, killing him on 5 May. Photo courtesy: Nepal Khabar </figcaption> </figure>  Govinda was seriously injured, and died later in Kirtipur Hospital. “He took out his phone and had just taken a couple of selfies when we heard this terrible sound and saw an overturned bus coming towards us, I managed to get out of the way but Govinda was not quick enough,” Suman Bandhu recalls. The photos are still in Govinda’s mobile phone and perhaps one day we will be able to see the self-portrait he took an instant before he was hit.&nbsp; During the cremation at Pashupati the next day Govinda’s fellow refugees spoke of him as a generous friend who placed the interests of others before himself — a sensitive poet, committed activist, and an accomplished agriculture scientist.&nbsp; “He was one of the few among us refugees who was an intellectual and an academic,” said Tilak Rai, another refugee who stayed behind in Beldangi. “He attended every Literature Society of Bhutan event at camp or memorials to fellow refugees like the physician <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/no-one-to-care-for-doctor-who-cared-for-everyone" target="_blank">Bhampa Rai</a>.”&nbsp; Govinda got married to classmate Shanta Karki who is now a joint secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture in Kathmandu, and he has written about her in his 2018 book, A Pardesi in Paradise. In it, he ruminates about the concept of ‘homeland’, especially after his parents and ounger brother Shiva Lal opted for <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/letter-to-my-kindergarten-daughter" target="_blank">resettlement in the US</a>.&nbsp; ‘America has not been the homeland my family expected. I got news that after my father lost his job and started losing his memory. Other relatives are working day and night to pay car and house loans. Other refugees are so stressed and depressed that they are under medication and need pills to sleep,’ he wrote. ‘That is why my dream, my goal and future are tied up here. Wherever I am, wherever I go I am always an outsider, but that is my Golden Land.’&nbsp; Tara Lal Shrestha, who edited the book, said: “Govinda moved around everywhere on his bicycle. He found Nepal to be unlike any other place because it was so welcoming of people seeking refuge. Nepal may have been his Golden Land, but it was not his final destination. He was in transit to heaven.”  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240510040524_aac8771f3b69cbc5a7ccc68fc2730aaf1055330bb0b2ad04b4dc9a7e191c820e.jpg" data-media-id="editor_8" data-image-id="20240510040524_aac8771f3b69cbc5a7ccc68fc2730aaf1055330bb0b2ad04b4dc9a7e191c820e" data-rendition-name="original" width="1221" height="1000" loading="lazy" alt="Bhutanese refugee accident"> <figcaption>Govinda’s bicycle helmet and bicycle. Photos: Sanjiv Balami / Facebook</figcaption> </figure>  Govinda talked about Beldangi fondly, almost nostalgically, as a safe haven: “Despite its bamboo huts and clay plaster walls, the well water that smelled of iron, and the joy of getting hold of &nbsp;kerosene or rice after standing in line, Beldangi was a refuge. I want to write a book about this chapter in my life.” Last year, after Govinda heard that his parents were not well in America, he tried to get travel documents to see them for the last time. For six months he was given the run around by Nepali officialdom. As soon as those behind desks heard he was a refugee, they would ask “<a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/scapegoating-a-champion-of-democracy" target="_blank">Real or fake?</a>”&nbsp; At the Home Ministry in Kathmandu, they did not even want to look at him after he said he was a refugee. After the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/losing-our-moral-compass" target="_blank">fake refugee scandal </a>broke last year, Nepal has stopped issuing travel documents to Bhutan citizens in Nepal. Govinda was still trying to get his papers to see his parents when he was killed this week. Ailing parents in America who were waiting to see him one last time are now performing funeral rituals.&nbsp; Recently, he visited refugee leader <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/opinion/comment/bhutan-s-refugees-between-hope-and-despair" target="_blank">Teknath Rijal</a> while the Amnesty International Prisoner of Conscience was still in detention after <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/editorial/the-tragedy-of-tek-nath-rizal-2g4dahmr" target="_blank">being framed</a> for his involvement in the <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/rot-at-the-top" target="_blank">fake refugee scandal</a>.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240510040524_761c6b03cc6e0f9dba9a4c76aec9803aba9682c8fe47952ab802c79e48fdebfc.png" data-media-id="editor_14" data-image-id="20240510040524_761c6b03cc6e0f9dba9a4c76aec9803aba9682c8fe47952ab802c79e48fdebfc" data-rendition-name="original" width="1180" height="760" loading="lazy" alt="Bhutanese refugee freak accident"> <figcaption>Photo: Ashok Budathoki / Facebook</figcaption> </figure>  Govinda had arrived on his bicycle from his house in Tokha, and brought some avocado from his garden. He had started writing his book, Beldangi: A Refuge, and recited its beginning paragraphs in Nepali: ‘I arrived in a place called Beldangi after taking a bus from Damak Chok on the last day of February 1993, looking for the hut of my father Chandra Lal and mother Devi Maya. They had left Bhutan one year before me. At the bus stop and all around, I met fellow refugees. I used to see them in Bhutan and had always regarded them as proud citizens. But here, they were stateless nobodies. I had only seen the word ‘refugee’ in books, now I was one myself.&nbsp; People got on and off the bus as we travelled towards Beldangi camp. At the edge of a forest there was a row of bamboo and thatch huts. How do I find my parents here, I thought.’

In transit to the Golden Land

Raju Acharya from Nepal is one of the winners of the Whitley Award to <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/here-now/lesser-known-endangered-species">protect owls</a> in central Nepal after spearheading a government-backed ten-year plan to safeguard the birds which had been overlooked from conservation efforts. Acharya is the founder of Friends of Nature, a Kathmandu-based environmental group and was instrumental in driving The Owl Conservation Action Plan in 2020 which addresses threats to owls from hunting, illegal trade, and habitat loss.&nbsp; <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-conservationist-wins-whitley-award">The Whitley Award</a> funding will help boost initiatives in central Nepal, home to the greatest density of birds and 19 of the country’s 23 owl species. Acharya received the award on 1 May at the Royal Geographical Society in a ceremony that marks three decades since the very first Whitley Award was presented.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240502050536_0508980af73328b90b5f18d7d03e4152ff685532992cc94e64ad6de3bff4e979.jpg" data-media-id="editor_2" data-image-id="20240502050536_0508980af73328b90b5f18d7d03e4152ff685532992cc94e64ad6de3bff4e979" data-rendition-name="original" width="1128" height="746" loading="lazy" alt="Raju Acharya Whitley Award NT"> <figcaption>Raju Acharya receiving the Whitley Award in London on Tuesday from Britain's Princess Royal for his work preserving owls in Nepal.</figcaption> </figure>  Sir David Attenborough, WFN Ambassador and a long-term supporter of the charity, said the growing network of winners represents some of the best conservation leaders in the world: “Whitley Award winners combine knowing how to respond to crises yet also bring communities and wider audiences with them." Raju has spent decades shoring up support for Nepal’s owls which include the jungle owlet, rock eagle owl and Eurasian eagle owl – all of which are currently listed as Least Concern or Data Deficient under the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.&nbsp; Raju’s work addresses the danger of focusing conservation efforts solely on highly threatened flagship species. Threats to the owls are significant: the birds are the subject of an illicit trade in central Nepal, with 1,500 owls hunted or traded each year in Nepal.&nbsp; Owls represent good or bad omens in central Nepal, with s Some people associate them with death, while in other areas, owl feathers are regarded as sacred objects that can ward off evil.  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240502030548_d206a97966188c4b99d27bb508d580372f5401a1fc078cae3e75ec1eb490e989.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20240502030548_d206a97966188c4b99d27bb508d580372f5401a1fc078cae3e75ec1eb490e989" data-rendition-name="original" width="3024" height="1702" loading="lazy" alt="Owl conservation in Nepal"> </figure>  Hunting by teenagers using catapults and habitat loss are other threats to the owls amid the felling of old trees whose cavities are crucial nesting sites for the birds. Forest makes up one-third of this region. Older trees also act as roosting, den or hibernation sites for owls which struggle to find nesting locations in semi-urban areas. Acharya’s project aims to build on Nepal’s success in conservation which has harnessed the proactive participation of communities. He aims to foster collaboration between the ethnic groups to foster a broader understanding of owls to reduce the use of catapults, discourage the consumption of owl meat and advocate for adherence to the government regulations which protect the birds. His Whitley Award project will conduct training events to increase the capacity of law enforcement agencies, policymakers and “owl envoys” – local ambassadors for the owls - with a goal of reducing hunting and trade by 25%. Acharya will also address the use of catapults by students who hunt the owls by creating five catapult-free zones. He aims to raise awareness among students and the public by creating 100 conservation camps. The abundance of birds significantly increases in those areas with larger numbers of old trees. His team will restore and rehabilitate 1,200 hectares of owl habitat by protecting 500 old trees and installing 100 artificial nests in semi-urban areas. “The appreciation from local people and colleagues serves as constant inspiration for me to continue my work,” Acharya said. At the forefront of owl research in Nepal and known locally as “Owl Sir” for his efforts to draw attention to the plight of owls, Acharya hopes to engage early career scientists to join him on his mission.&nbsp;  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20240502030548_fd983316cfac9bef9a1a146a8976a2479171969fc3c86d0f898690184f2a8487.jpg" data-media-id="editor_4" data-image-id="20240502030548_fd983316cfac9bef9a1a146a8976a2479171969fc3c86d0f898690184f2a8487" data-rendition-name="original" width="2304" height="1728" loading="lazy" alt="Owl conservation in Nepal"> </figure>  He also brings out a digital owl newsletter called Hapsilo, Raju set up the Nepal Owl Festival eleven years ago. The festival has boosted eco-tourism to the region and become one of the country’s biggest conservation events despite owls being lower priority species than tigers and snow leopards. <a href="https://nepalitimes.com/news/nepali-conservationist-wins-whitley-again">The Whitley Fund for Nature</a> (WFN) is a UK charity supporting grassroots conservation leaders in the Global South. Over 30 years it has channelled £23 million to more than 200 conservationists across 80 countries. The other 2024 Whitley Award winners are: Fernanda Abra from Brazil who is pioneering the use of low-cost canopy bridges over highway BR-174 in the Amazon rainforest to restore connectivity for tree-dwelling mammals and save them from road collisions Naomi Longa from Papua New Guinea who is safeguarding coral reefs in Kimbe Bay and creating a network of marine protected areas led by local Indigenous women Aristide Kamla from Cameroon who is restoring the African manatee habitat in Lake Ossa, addressing threats from invasive species and pollution Kuenzang Dorji from Bhutan who is protecting the Endangered Gee’s golden langur and implementing solutions for farmers whose crops the primates are targeting. Leroy Ignacio from Guyana who is leading an expansion of one of the country’s first Indigenous-led conservation movements to protect the Endangered Red Siskin finch.

patan-darbar-square