Cultural heritage: Post-quake Rehabilitation Chronicles from the Kathmandu Valley

The earthquakes of April and May 2015, literally and figuratively sent shockwaves through Nepal. More than 8,000 people lost their lives and hundreds of thousands still struggle with homelessness. Amid the terrible human catastrophe, the natural disaster and the aftershocks also generated a cultural crisis, damaging and destroying much of Nepal’s unique cultural heritage, including monuments within the Kathmandu Valley World Heritage Site.

The tangible and intangible value inherent in most damaged heritage sites will be subject to a major rehabilitation and conservation programme. The initial shock of the earthquake has passed, but Nepal continues its battle to overcome both manmade and natural disasters. Amid the rubble, there is also an opportunity to build Nepal’s heritage back better.

Beautiful ornate temples of wood, brick and tile – the monuments of the Kathmandu Valley represent a major source of income and economic growth for Nepal. Tourism is a key component of Nepal’s fragile economy, as one of the country’s major sources of foreign currency. Heritage sites also play a central role in the spiritual daily lives of thousands. Temples represent portals where the heavens touch the earth, allowing ordinary people to reach out and commune with their guiding goddesses and gods.

In collaboration with concerned stakeholders, UNESCO has been playing a proactive role in assisting the government of Nepal, particularly the Department of Archaeology to protect, monitor and safeguard damaged heritage sites, and has also been able to collect support from donors.

A project supported by the Japanese Government is being implemented by UNESCO Kathmandu to monitor selected damaged monuments at risk of collapse, assess further risk and consolidate and restore two monuments in Hanumandhoka Durbar Square. The project helped boost the Department of Archaeology’s commitment to save, sort and establish an inventory of dispersed artifacts and wooden elements from the debris of collapsed monuments scattered around the area.

The effort, which continues with funding from the Fok Ying Tung Funds-In-Trust, has supported the reuse of artistic elements as much as possible in the rebuilding phase. Among the salvaged items are corner struts (kunsala), branch struts, small and large brackets (meth), joist heads (dhalinkhwas), wooden cornices, independent icons and other smaller items belonging to different temples in Hanumandhoka Durbar Square.

Currently they are being stored systematically in a temporary shelter in Trishul Chowk. and some wooden decorative elements are on display at secured places. Experts believe that out of the salvaged elements, only about 10% will be directly reused, 15-70% may need minor or major treatment, while the rest cannot be reused; however, because of their iconographic value, they are still worth displaying at the museum.

UNESCO Kathmandu is in process of formalizing its assistance with the Department of Archaeology in building up a systematic database system and inventory of monuments showing the pre- and post-earthquake conditions of heritage structures for use in regular monitoring and reporting on cultural heritage sites.

Several workshops boosted the capacity of Nepalese built heritage professionals for the post-quake recovery and rehabilitation process. These were organized by the Department of Archelogy and ICCROM in collaboration with ICOMOS Nepal, the Institute for Disaster Mitigation of Urban Cultural Heritage at Ritsumeikan University and UNESCO, with funding support from the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment. The workshops promoted coordination among various stakeholders engaged in the recovery of cultural sites and historic settlements. Forty Nepalese cultural heritage professionals currently engaged in a variety of cultural recovery projects have participated in such capacity-enhancing workshops.

Thirty museum professionals also joined a workshop on post-earthquake recovery, safe storage and access to museum collections, held at the National Museum in Chhauni organized by the Department of Archeology and ICCROM, also supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment. They learned about the design and installation of sustainable storage systems for collections, surface cleaning stabilization as well as labelling and packaging of different types of museum objects. UNESCO co-sponsored the workshop on the provision of storage equipment, with funding support from the Government of Flanders.

UNESCO also sponsored a multidisciplinary team to undertake a rescue archaeology mission prior to reconstruction from October 5 to November 22, 2015, in various monument zones of the Kathmandu Valley World Heritage site. The team used a Ground Penetrating Radar to locate the subsurface archaeology of the Durbar Squares of Hanumandhoka, Patan and Bhaktapur. The technology helped increase the understanding of the heritage sites’ development and assessed damage to the foundations through excavations, offering invaluable trainings to Nepalese professionals. The surveys located archaeology under pavements, and excavations confirmed the presence of earlier buildings. “The results have allowed the creation of a risk map of the sites, which will guide reconstruction and future development of these historic sites to protect the surface heritage that these excavations have revealed,” said Christian Manhart, UNESCO Representative to Nepal.

Likewise, in the Swayambhu Monument zone, the Tashi Gomang Stupa, a 19^th century stupa of unique style was one of the monuments damaged to the point where numerous sculptures – miniature clay stupas, tsha-tshas in Tibetan – enshrined inside of it were pouring out of the structure. UNESCO swiftly extended help upon the request of the Federation of Swayambhu Management and Conservation by sending an archaeologist to work on the decaying structure. The archaeologist worked closely with an archaeological officer from the Department of Archeology and trained students from Tribhuvan University as well as representative of the local priest community to ensure proper handling and recording of the objects. The team salvaged hundreds of sculptures and votive objects from the rubble and inventoried them. The stupa site is further secured in order to prevent further damage and protect against looting.

For more, please contact: Nipuna Shrestha, UNESCO Kathmandu Culture Unit, email: s.nipuna@unesco.org