Tracking Trends: A Study of Post-Earthquake Approaches to Conservation in Patan, Nepal

ABSTRACT

The earthquakes in 2015 brought Nepal to the centre of attention of the global heritage community. At the Patan Durbar Square and Royal Palace – part of the Kathmandu Valley’s UNESCO World Heritage Site – considerable progress has been made in the conservation and reconstruction of damaged, built cultural heritage, mainly made of brick, timber and stone. Collaborative work between the Institute of Conservation, University of Applied Arts Vienna, the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust and local craftsmen has made an important contribution. An update and review of recent projects in Patan is presented, on the basis of ethical, philosophical and practical approaches. In Nepal, stakeholders in the conservation arena (Department of Archaeology, municipality, community, international actors) pursue widely divergent approaches. While some also apply modern materials and Western-based principles of conservation, others use only traditional, or supposedly traditional, materials and methods. This leads to recurring controversy. In Patan, also owing to the long-term collaboration of Austrian scholars and experts, a balance with remarkable results of earthquake response has been achieved, illustrated here.

KEYWORDS:

• Patan
• Nepal
• UNESCO world heritage
• built cultural heritage
• earthquake
• approaches in conservation-restoration
• conservation ethics and philosophy

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to the Austrian Development Agency, the Austrian Federal Chancellery, the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs, the Eurasia-Pacific Uninet and the University of Applied Arts Vienna for financial support and to the KVPT, explicitly Dr Rohit Ranjitkar, and the participants of all campaigns for the good co-operation and support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 A mixture of lime, sand and brick powder.

2 Compare the Venice Charter 1964 and the Burra Charter 2013.

3 For instance the work of the Austrians Eduard F. Sekler and Carl Pruscha.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Austrian Development Agency [grant number GZ2808-00/2015], BKA [grant number BKA-KU21.7040001-II42015], BMEIA [grant number BMEIA-AT.5.26.45/0153-V.1/2015 and BMEIA-NP.7.02.36/0002-VII.5d/2015].