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| astitwa |
Posted
on 07-Apr-03 04:50 PM
Hello everyone,
I have always found thoughtful discussions in sajha, and need your thoughts on this topic. i am working on a portfolio on kathmandu which is concerned with the tension that always crops up between local people and municipality and UNESCO concerning the conservation of heritage sites. UNESCO has threatened to remove heritage sites from the list if proper restoration and demolition of buildings are not carried out around the sites but demolition and new rules causes problem for locals. like around patan durbar square, you have to rebuild buildings the old style which comes out to be really expensive for the houseowners but municipality doesnot bear their additional cost. This raises the question: who owns the city: the locals, government or the heritage conservation agencies. Is heritage preservation important even at the cost of local's discomfort? If you have any thoughts, please post them, would appreciate your help.
astitwa
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| czar |
Posted
on 07-Apr-03 07:03 PM
Astitwa, work on urban development in the valley and its effects were studied and recorded by the GTZ-UDLE (Urban Development through Local Efforts), a German govt. project. If I recollect correctly, they were also involved in the restoration of historial sites and urban planning in an advisory capacity with the municaplity. Kathmandu municipality also worked on this issue and I recollect they had a city planning commisioner who had some bold plans, some of which have been been since implemented.
I'm afraid I don't have any contact information for you at this time, but you are urged to chase this down through research and contacts you have. Meanwhile, I will see what I can do.
I am posting this again here, I had done so earlier in another thread. Not to detract from the topic, just a FYI. dont let me distract anyone, do carry on, marvellous topic.
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| surya |
Posted
on 07-Apr-03 07:29 PM
I am not very familiar with the specifics of historic preservation, but I remember that in the case of Bhaktapur it seemed like there was a great deal of controversy around this very issue. I think in the long run the community benefitted a great deal and actually historic preservation also contributed to bringing support for modernization and overall improvement of the city. I remember how Bhaktapur at times seemed stuck in the middle ages with people's poop littering the bato from the trolley bus stop to the city. Later after the project was well underway, people seemed mollified that their some of their individual hardship was off set by benefits to the community.
Of course there were always rumors of how the Germans were stealing our ancient texts and plundering some secret treasure trove.
Regardless, I have heard of some families who continued to live in decrepit old buildings because of lack of funds for renovations and others who sold thier carved windows on the sly.
I think historic preservation is great. But without providing support and incentives, it is unreasonable to ask the homeowners/locals to bear all brunt of the costs, especially in a place like Kathamdnu where realestate is the perceived to be the most enduing and reliable source of all income and where people when required to undertake officially recommened expensive preservation measures, could end up in fiancial ruin.
After all the heritage is not just theirs.
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| rabi |
Posted
on 08-Apr-03 09:58 AM
Astitwa:
It's an interesting debate, because people--whose lives, traditions, neighborhoods, and monuments are prized by these westerners for their age and their uniqueness--don't always share the same zeal for preservation. These people want to "progress" to western modernity, at the cost of much of their prized heritage . I don't fault them for refusing to turn their lives into racks of museum specimen.
At the same time, I do see the value in trying to preserve some of our heritage. However, as Surya said, you can't simply expect people in, say, Patan, not to renovate their 100 year-old house, not to build a store next to a temple or expect them to live like they lived generations ago. If you want to turn Patan into a musuem, you' ve got to reconcile that zeal with the needs and aspirations of the indigenous population that lives and works there everyday. And you' ve got to pay for it.
Even if we recognize the need for above reconciliation, a lot still remains to be answered. Is it only the western donors who will pay for such preservation, or are we Nepalis willing to do much on our own? How much of the zeal for preservation is shared by the Nepalis themselves and the Nepali govt? Short of relocating people, how are we going to preserve much of the physical sites? And what about the relatively intangibles such as the traditions and the culture? How much of that is realistically preservable against the relentless tides of "modernity"?
A LOT OF THE PROBLEMS WITH PRESERVATION EFFORTS IN THE KATHMANDU VALLEY COME FROM THE FACT THAT YOU ARE TRYING TO PRESERVE A LIVE HERITAGE, NOT DISCOVER OR RECONSTRUCT A DEAD ONE! It should be easier, but is it really!?Kathmandu is a relatively small place with a thriving, very dense, and rapidly growing population. It's the capital, and it's seen by most of the the Nepalis as the only place to be, as long as they can afford it. And Kathmandu is the floodgate for tides of (western) modernity gushing into all of Nepal.
I remember some intelligent and lively discussions about this issue in past issues of Himal magazine.
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| astitwa |
Posted
on 09-Apr-03 10:42 AM
Ek din log in huna paina, got really great comments from Czar, Surya and Rabi. I agree with all your views. Czar thanks for the comment in the photos section as well, i will try to find the GTZ project but being away here makes research really difficult. If you can find anything on that , can you let me know. Surya and Rabi appreciated your comment, since i cant go to kathmandu to interview people, i have to get people's comment throught the site but people rarely involve in these kind of discussion ,can you suggest some way of getting more people's participation? Rabi if you could find the Himalayan Issue, could you let me know. This is the time for midterms and all assignments on my head so havenot had time to pursue on this topic more but would really appreciate your help.
thanks again
astitwa
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| czar |
Posted
on 09-Apr-03 07:10 PM
Astitwa: As promised earlier, I spoke to the former City Planning Commisioner of Kathmandu and, based on his input, here are some URL's for you to check out.
Kathmandu VAlley Preservation Trust
http://www.asianart.com/kvpt/completed.html
http://www.citynet-ap.org/en/pub3.html
Patan Museum
http://www.asianart.com/patan-museum/
If you do a google search for Bhaktapur Municipality, you will find lots of information on it. Further, the UNESCO world heritage web site is another one to check into. That should provide you enough material not only to frame the arguments, but flesh out the unique answers created by group/locale struggling with the ramications of living with history and culture.
Good luck.
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| astitwa |
Posted
on 09-Apr-03 08:08 PM
Hi Czar,
You are a life saver, really appreciate your help. i will definitely check out the internet sites and also do the google search. I was looking through kantipur and nepalitimes to see if there were any articles on this issue (with interview with locals and the clash between local and municipality) but since there is no search engine in these sites, it takes me forever to go through each and every issue, if you know of any issue , could you let me know, sada tapain ko abhari hune chu.
thanks
astitwa
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