How can vernacular architecture and its cultural heritage be conserved amid rampant, unplanned development in the Kathmandu Valley?

Arati Thapa [Linkedin] [email] [Instagram]

Kathmandu is known for being a city of temples with its distinctive Newari architectural style. It has 7 UNESCO heritage sites and is the centre of Nepal’s arts and culture. However, amidst its exquisite temple and palace complexes, the city has faced several problems with rapid urbanisation, loss of vernacular architecture, political turmoil and natural disasters. The 2015 Nepal Earthquake destroyed over 700,000 buildings and caused 9,000 deaths throughout the country (KC et al., 2019).  This paper examines how government negligence in city planning and up-keeping of old vernacular houses contributed to the loss of lives and cultural heritage sites. It also looks at how reconstruction efforts through community participation and the use of traditional knowledge from local artisans can be helpful in the conservation of vernacular architecture and cultural heritage sites.

INtroduction

The study of the built environment and its spatial and material forms in anthropology has traditionally been considered to represent how people manipulate their natural environment to accommodate, adapt, and create built forms for shelters and other activities (Lawrence & Low, 1990). It leads to a process where people’s interaction with the natural environment and the subsequently built environment can produce and reproduce various forms of culture and heritage. The term ‘vernacular architecture’ has been typically used to refer to building practices that fall outside the Western style of building using formally trained architects (Blier, 2006).  The usage of the term invites a lot of discourse as it originally was used to imply that traditional housing practices outside the Western sphere were ‘primitive’ by early anthropologists. However, the term ‘vernacular’ is now increasingly used to embrace various building traditions ranging from houses, places of worship, and cultural heritage sites. This essay will explore how the built environment of Nepal can be used to foster culture; and how it can also be used to show forms of power. I will look at how the state’s promotion of neoliberalism has enabled unplanned urbanisation, causing threats to Kathmandu’s vernacular architecture heritage. I will use the 2015 Nepal Earthquake to highlight how vulnerable the built environment and its socialites can be when in a state of neglect and disrepair. 

History of the Kathmandu Valley

The Kathmandu Valley is located at the heart of the ancient Himalayan trade routes that connected the rich plains of India to the high Tibetan Plateau. The indigenous Newari people of Kathmandu greatly benefited economically from controlling the trade routes (Whelpton, 2005). This allowed the distinctive Newari art and architecture to flourish in the valley and have some influence on the arts of nearby regions. Newari artisans are prized for their expertise in wooden, stone and metal sculpting, and traditional Buddhist Paubha (Thangka) paintings (Dhungana & Kawan, 2023). The Kathmandu Valley is renowned for its palace courtyards, known as Durbar Squares, which are an integral part of Newari culture. They have always been open to the public as a place where the local people could practice their religion, conduct commerce and be used for leisure and social gatherings. Three of these palace complexes (Durbar Squares) are now part of the 7 UNESCO World Heritage that exist in the valley (U.W.H, 2024).

Even outside the world heritage sites, the streets of Kathmandu are dotted with smaller shrines, temples, stupas, and various mythological and religious statues. It is considered customary in the local culture to pay their due respect when walking past such places of worship with a simple bow and hand movement of prayer. These actions showcase how religious and cultural values are embedded in the everyday life of the residents of Kathmandu. Pierre Bourdieu’s (1970) study of the Berber House explained the theory of ‘habitus”. Habitus refers to how the built environment that a person dwells in provides fundamental schemes of ‘lived experiences’ that allow them to learn the embodied knowledge of their wider society. Thus, for the indigenous Newar people who have inhabited the valley for centuries, their built environment dotted with temples, shrines and stupas forms an integral part of their identity, social structure and heritage. 

Materialities

Looking at the materialities of the built environment can help understand how the culture of the place may have been shaped in order to adapt to their environment or the depth of their trade (or contact) with other groups (Lawrence & Low, 1990). The traditional Newari architecture consists of two primary materials: sun-dried red mudbricks bound by mud mortars and features beautiful religious carvings on the wooden beams, pillars, doors and windows that support the structure (Shakya, 2016). The floor and the roof support structures are also made of wood. These materials reflect the natural environment of the place. The Kathmandu Valley is situated in central Nepal, surrounded by the lesser hills of the Himalayas that are covered in dense forest. The sun-dried bricks are made from clay, which is abundant in the Kathmandu Valley. The Valley used to contain a paleo-lake that covered the entire valley (Paudel, 2015). It is thought that large earthquakes in the region due to the Indian tectonic plate moving towards the Eurasian plate may have contributed to the drainage of the paleo-lake (Sakai et al., 2016). This is evidenced by the rich, fertile soil of Kathmandu containing clay sediments and silt. The two materials - mudbricks and wood, provide good insulation, air ventilation and temperature regulation for Kathmandu’s temperate climate, where winter can get severely chilly while summer can get blistering hot.  

Providing shelters and spaces for people to conduct social activities has been a key feature of Newari towns. The Durbar Squares and the streets of Kathmandu contain many ‘sattals’, ‘mandaps’ and ‘pati’ whose sole purpose is to provide free shelter to people (Asfuk, 2017).

Formation of Nepal and control of power

Nepal was formed when the Shah family from Gorkha Kingdom (central Nepal) annexed various small states in the Himalayan region during the 18th century (Whelpton, 2005). In 1846, the powerful Rana family (who were ministers at the palace court) took control of the country with a bloody coup d'état and closed the country’s borders. During their 200-year reign of power, the Rana family had deliberately underdeveloped Nepal by banning education for all civilians except for the ruling elite families and implementing the caste system into the national constitution to dictate the social and job roles one could occupy based on their ethnic and caste background. Infrastructures such as access to roads, water pipes, and healthcare were very limited throughout Nepal, except for Kathmandu, where the centre of power remained. James C. Scott (1998), a political scientist and anthropologist, has described the importance of how designs of the city and its infrastructures can be vital in holding power and quashing any uprisings. This is illustrated in the way Paris was designed after the French Revolution.

Construction of big boulevards of straight, spacious roads and train routes that lead from the centre to the suburbs was done. This made it easier for large numbers of soldiers to be transported in a short amount of time to quash any rebels (Scott, 1998). In Kathmandu’s case, the city has a large open space called Tundikhel, which was historically open for public use. This open space started being used by the Rana rulers to showcase their prowess with military parades and assembly points for soldiers to be deployed during war times (Rizal, 2020). Over time, military barracks and police stations were built upon with encroachment, reducing and fragmenting the open space of Tundikhel. This military emplacement in the centre of Kathmandu would have made the public see the Rana rule as absolute and difficult to dispose of. Whereas, outside Kathmandu, the lack of infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, served the state in its favour as the country’s Himalayan mountains and harsh climate acted as natural barriers, making it difficult for people to form rebellions against the state. The Ranas also built various monuments in the capital using influences from the European neoclassical architectural style, which helped supplement their display of power. This included several palaces containing distinctive Grecian columns, white plasters for outer walls, and limestones and marbles for the interior (Sengupta & Upadhyay, 2015). 

From the end of autocratic rule to adopting neo-liberalism

The rampant modernisation of Nepal started in 1951 when the country opened its border after the 200 years of the autocratic Rana family’s rule were overthrown, and the Shah kings came back to power with constitutional monarchy (Whelpton, 2005). The post-1960s saw the Nepalese government endorsing neo-liberalism and a capitalist free market system, which helped de-regulate companies and manufacturing factories (Nelson, 2017). This facilitated the rampant extraction of natural resources, such as timber, sand and gravel, from the surrounding hills, leading to widespread environmental degradation. It enabled the construction of unplanned buildings throughout the country, as numerous brick kilns and cement factories opened to capitalise on profiteering from rapid urbanisation (Nelson, 2017). David Harvey, an urban geographer and anthropologist, used the term “accumulation by dispossession” to describe how the system of neoliberalism works (Harvey cited in Ortner, 2016; pp. 52). Although it advocates for entrepreneurial freedom and privatisation of essential institutions, this primarily benefits the wealthy who own the means of production.

In order to reduce labour costs, downsizing of the labour force and the removal of power to their demands are endorsed. This increases inequalities, where the poor get poorer, and the rich continue accumulating wealth at the expense of others losing theirs. The benefits of the free market neoliberalism mainly went to high caste groups of Brahmins and Chettris, who occupied most seats in the government. The post-1970s saw various manufacturing companies and mines being closed, creating people’s grievances with the government (Jha, 2014). The unstable government, coupled with vast unemployment and high rates of poverty, made a large number of people turn to communist ideologies and join the revolution against the state (Hutt, 1994). This was the start of the 10-year Nepalese civil war, also known as the Maoist Revolution, that lasted from 1996 to 2006. The fighting largely took place in the rural mountains of Nepal. This increased rural-to-urban migration as refugees flocked to Kathmandu to escape the war. The once homogeneous population of Kathmandu, consisting of mainly indigenous Newari people, is now a multi-cultural city with 3.1 million people (KC et al., 2019). This has helped the property and land ownership market to increase in Kathmandu, leading many Newari people to move away from their historical town centres to the peripheries of the valley. 

Kathmandu saw many of its older, vernacular houses renovated illegally to add more stories to accommodate the rising population (Sengupta & Upadhyay, 2015). This practice of building smaller storey houses and then adding more floors without planning permissions in later years is rampant in Nepal. This increases its vulnerability to structural failure and ability to withstand earthquakes. Large infrastructural projects, such as expanding roads to highways and sewage systems, meant that many older, vernacular houses were demolished to make way for the roads. They were then replaced by modern houses made from cement. An ethnographic study by Julie Soleil Archambault (2018) in Mozambique found that local people associate cement with the onset of modernisation and the display of financial wealth. This is also the case in Nepal, where cement houses are called ‘pakki ghar’ (sturdy house) and harbour prestige, success and honour; while traditional houses are known as ‘kachi ghar’ (weak houses), representing backwardness and being impoverished (Nelson, 2017; pp. 58-59). This is also reflected in the materialities of the houses. The modern houses of Kathmandu contain cement, concrete flat roofs, and reinforced steel and concrete columns. These materials are more permanent in their forms and use non-renewable resources to stabilise their properties. While the vernacular buildings are made from renewable materials that are impermanent and need frequent replacement of parts. The costly requirement of changing roofs or wooden windows has meant that many people prefer the convenience of modern homes that require minimum renovations.

However, there are some seeming disadvantages of the modern cement houses in reflection of Kathmandu’s environment. Due to a lack of infrastructure, Nepalese houses do not have a central heating system. Thus, during the cold winter months, modern houses are too cold as the cement and concrete materials do not provide good insulation or sustain heat inside the house. The environmental impact of making the materials is also greater as it uses extracted sand, gravel, and stones. This has caused the hillsides to be more prone to landslides. The numerous cement and open brick kiln factories that have helped facilitate urbanisation in Kathmandu have contributed to the depletion of its groundwater resources and impacted the city’s air quality (Ferdous, 2013). The Nepalese government has stayed oblivious to the burgeoning problem as cement and concrete are easy ways to hide the corruption and bribery that occurs behind the political scene (Elinoff, 2017). 

the 2015 Nepal Earthquake

The vulnerability of Kathmandu’s unplanned urbanisation was highlighted in the 7.8 magnitude 2015 Nepal Earthquake. It caused nearly 9,000 deaths, and over 700,000 buildings were destroyed or damaged. This included 753 heritage and monuments throughout Nepal (KC et al., 2019). Kathmandu was one of the badly affected areas due to its proximity to the earthquake's epicentre in Gorkha. The effects of the earthquake were amplified in Kathmandu, causing liquefaction due to its soft, clay lakebed (Gautam et al., 2017). Most of the houses that were damaged and destroyed were old vernacular houses that had been neglected as modern houses became popular. Another reason for these houses to have crumbled was the illegal construction of additional storeys in the foundation structures that could only support two or three (Sengupta & Upadhyay, 2015). There were many modern, shoddily constructed cement houses that were damaged, too. The lack of open spaces for people to flee during the earthquake or use as camps by those who lost their homes was apparent in the earthquake's aftermath. The Tundikhel open space was used to house some of the refugees. But in most parts of Kathmandu, there were no open spaces to be used as emergency camps.

All 7 of the UNESCO Heritage sites in Kathmandu suffered damages. Some of the factors that contributed to their destruction were the lack of timely repair and renovation. Many of the temples (and vernacular houses) were deliberately left to decay by the government.  An example of this is shown in how the roof of the Singha Sattal (shelter) in the Kathmandu Durbar was covered with a tarpaulin instead of being fixed by the government (Singh, 2004). The sattal was then rented out to shopkeepers to earn profits. The sattal was severely damaged during the earthquake and had to be reconstructed. The Nepal Earthquake made the Nepalese government become visible in their negligence in city planning and following safety procedures. The handling of the aid money by the government brought corruption in broad daylight. There has been criticism about the slow procession and distribution of aid money to victims who lost their homes in the earthquake (Himalayan Times, 2019). 

The loss of cultural heritage sites and their intangible heritage was more profound as the country had just begun peace processes after the end of a 10-year civil war. The war not only facilitated rural-to-urban migration but also accelerated Nepalese people's search for job employment outside the country. This meant that many communities in Nepal, including the Newaris in Kathmandu, had been experiencing social fragmentation as people moved away to search for opportunities elsewhere (Speck, 2017). With fewer people remaining behind, it was already facing a loss of cultural traditions, arts, rituals and heritage that give communities a sense of belonging and identity. Despite the severe loss of tangible and intangible heritage in the earthquake, the reconstruction effort has helped bring a sense of community unison in building back some of the public heritage sites.

The Kasthamandap pavilion (translates to wooden shelter), which gave Kathmandu its name, was completely destroyed during the earthquake (Joshi et al., 2021). After the earthquake, there were various contestations about the allocation of reconstruction funding and the institution that led it. The government had been planning to appoint foreign institutions. However, the local community decided to take the reconstruction of Kasthamandap into their own hands by using the traditional guthis system (where a community or a family would be appointed to look after a specific temple or monument) and fundraised some of the cost. This was to prevent the government’s use of modern construction materials, such as cement, that would go against the Newari architectural style and techniques. It was also to prevent the lack of transparency between the government and foreign institutions if they were given the power to lead the reconstruction (Hutt et al., 2021) The community participated with Durham University to research the material, design and building techniques of the Kasthmandap to incorporate them in the reconstruction. The research allowed the temple to be carbon-dated, which revealed that it was built in the 7th century. Various other new information was learnt such as the foundation of the shelter being built to resemble a mandala. The research also revealed the reason why it fell down in the 2015 earthquake – one of the support beams had been incorrectly placed during its hasty renovation in the 1980s (Hutt et al., 2021).

The reconstruction of Kasthamandap can be used as a precedent of how comprehensive research can be used to learn more about the vernacular structures to conserve them in the future. The use of community participation can also be applied to the reconstruction of other heritage sites as it allows them to take control of their own heritage and help reconstruct their lives and identities by overcoming the trauma from the earthquake. Furthermore, it gives space for the transfer of indigenous knowledge from the older artisan to the next generations, who will help conserve it in the future. As the community is now multi-cultural, this gave an opportunity for people from other ethnic and caste groups to also partake in the learning process of Newari art and architecture. They were able to move boundaries that were previously placed by the restrictive Shah and Rana governments.

Conclusion

This essay has explored the ways that state control has had an impact on the built environment of Kathmandu and how rapid urbanisation created the loss of vernacular architecture and socials of the community. The 2015 Earthquake had a profound effect on the cultural heritage sites of Kathmandu and impacted the people’s sense of loss of heritage. However, as evidenced by the Kasthamandap shelter, reconstruction of heritage sites can help people rekindle their connection with heritage sites, and allow transfer of indigenous knowledge, which can help with the future conservation of the vernacular architecture and cultural heritage sites of Nepal.  

REFERENCES

Appadurai, A. (2010) Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. 9th edn. Minneapolis, US: University of Minnesota.

Asfuk (2017) ‘The Public Resthouse’, Resilience by design: Bungamati, 21 August. Available at: https://resiliencebydesignbungamati.wordpress.com/2017/08/21/the-public-resthouse/ (Accessed: 7 May 2024).

Bangdel, D. (2013) ‘Review: Architecture of the Newars: A History of Building Typologies and Details in Nepal, by Niels Gutschow’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, 72(3), pp. 414–416. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2013.72.3.414.

Blier, S.P. (2006) ‘Vernacular Architecture’, in Handbook of Material Culture. London: SAGE Publications Ltd, pp. 230–253.

Bourdieu, P. (1970) The Berber house or the world reversed. Available at: https://journalssagepub-com.libproxy.ucl.ac.uk/doi/10.1177/053901847000900213 (Accessed: 29 April 2024).

Colopy, C. (2012) Dirty, Sacred Rivers: Confronting South Asia’s Water Crisis. Newy York: Oxford University Press.

Dhungana, K. and Kawan, S.S. (2023) ‘Architecture and Body Associates in Newari Culture of Bhaktapur’, Journal of Advanced Research in English and Education, 8(1), pp. 3–11. Available at: https://doi.org/10.24321/2456.4370.202302.

Elinoff, E. (2017) ‘Concrete and corruption: Materialising power and politics in the Thai capital’, City: Analysis of Urban Change, Theory, Action [Preprint]. Available at:

https://www.academia.edu/46545694/Concrete_and_corruption_Materialising_power_and _politics_in_the_Thai_capital (Accessed: 15 May 2024)

Ferdous, T. (2013) ‘Environment And Health Impact For Brick Kilns In Kathmandu Valley’, International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research [Preprint]. Available at:

https://www.academia.edu/70622009/Environment_And_Health_Impact_For_Brick_Kilns_I n_Kathmandu_Valley (Accessed: 4 May 2024).

Gautam, D., de Magistris, F.S. and Fabbrocino, G. (2017) ‘Soil liquefaction in Kathmandu valley due to 25 April 2015 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake’, Soil Dynamics and Earthquake

Engineering, 97, pp. 37–47. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soildyn.2017.03.001.

 Gellner, D. N. (1997) Caste, Communalism, and Communism: Newars and The Nepalese

State, in Nationalism and Ethnicity in a Hindu Kingdom: The Politics of Culture in Contemporary Nepal. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: Harwood Academic Publishers. 

Government of Nepal (2021) National Report | National Population and and Housing Census 2021 Results (2021). Available at: https://censusnepal.cbs.gov.np/results/downloads/national (Accessed: 1 May 2024).

Four years after Nepal’s deadly earthquakes, survivors continue to live in disarray (no date). Available at: https://kathmandupost.com/national/2019/04/24/four-years-after-nepalsdeadly-earthquakes-survivors-continue-to-live-in-disarray (Accessed: 15 May 2024).

Hutt, M. (1994) Nepal in the Nineties. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press.

Hutt, M., Liechty, M. and Lotter, S. (eds) (2021) Epicentre to Aftermath: Rebuilding and Remembering in the Wake of Nepal’s Earthquakes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108991636.

Jha, P. (2104) Battles of the New Republic - A Contemporary History of Nepal. London: C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd.

Joshi, R., Tamrakar, A. and Magaiya, B. (2021) ‘Community-based participatory approach in cultural heritage reconstruction: A case study of Kasthamandap’, Progress in Disaster Science, 10, p. 100153. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pdisas.2021.100153.

KC, C., Karuppannan, S. and Sivam, A. (2019) ‘Importance of Cultural Heritage in a PostDisaster Setting: Perspectives from the Kathmandu Valley’. Rochester, NY. Available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=3414095 (Accessed: 15 May 2024).

KC, A., Sharma, K. and Pokharel, B. (2019) ‘Reconstruction of heritage structures in Nepal after 2015 Gorkha, Nepal earthquake’, in. 12th Canadian Conferene on Earthquake Engineering.

Lawrence, D.L. and Low, S.M. (1990) ‘The Built Environment and Spatial Form’, Annual Review of Anthropology, 19, pp. 453–505.

Marland, C. (2008) Patan_Krishna-temple. Available at:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/13654353@N08/3011704599 (Accessed: 1 May 2024).

Nelson, A. (2017) ‘Prestigious houses or provisional homes? The ghar as a symbol of Kathmandu Valley Peri- Urbanism’, Himalaya, 37, pp. 57–71.

Ortner, S.B. (2016) ‘Dark anthropology and its others: Theory since the eighties’, HAU:

Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 6(1), pp. 47–73. Available at: https://doi.org/10.14318/hau6.1.004.

Paudel, M.R. (2015) ‘Soft sediments deformation structures: Implication for draining of Paleo-Kathmandu Lake’, Journal of Nepal Geological Society, Vol 49, pp. 41–48.

Photowalk (2024) ‘PhotoWalk 20-Apr-2024: Announcement’, Photowalk Nepal, 18 April. Available at: https://www.photowalknepal.com/photowalk-20-apr-2024-announcement/ (Accessed: 2 September 2024).

Sakai, H., Fujii, R., Sugimoto, M., Setoguchi, R. & Paudel, M. R (2016) ‘Two times lowering of lake water at around 48 and 38 ka, caused by possible earthquakes, recorded in the PaleoKathmandu lake, central Nepal Himalaya’, Earth, Planets and Space, 68(1), p. 31. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-016-0413-5.

Sengupta, U. and Bhattarai Upadhyay, V. (2016) ‘Lost in Transition? Emerging forms of residential architecture in Kathmandu’, Cities, 52(March), pp. 94–102. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2015.11.007.

Shakya, N. (2016) Temples and Buildings Standing Over Kathmandu Valley Which is Vulnerable to Earthquakes. Heritage and Tourism Department Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Nepal. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/238788640 (Accessed: 22 April 2024). 

Shilpakar, A. (2017) ‘Woodcraft in Nepalese Architecture’, 9 July. Available at:

https://spacesnepalblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/09/woodcraft-in-nepalese-architecture/ (Accessed: 11 May 2024).

Singh, R. (2004) Govt to lease Singha Sattal, The Himalayan Times. Available at:

https://thehimalayantimes.com/kathmandu/govt-to-lease-singha-sattal (Accessed: 15 May 2024).

Speck, S. (2017) ‘“They Moved to City Areas, Abroad”: Views of the Elderly on the Implications of Outmigration for the Middle Hills of Western Nepal’, Mountain Research and Development, 37(4), pp. 425–435. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D17-00034.1.

U.W.H. (2024) Nepal - UNESCO World Heritage Convention, UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Available at: https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/np (Accessed: 27 April 2024).

Whelpton, J. (2005) A History of Nepal. 1st edn. Delhi, India: Cambridge University Press.

Wonker (2008) Kasthamandap | wonker | Flickr (April, 2008). Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wonker/2384240387/ (Accessed: 2 September 2024).