Feeding Birds and Rebuilding Ruins: The Streets of Patan (#2), Kathmandu Valley Nepal

Nepali women in rubber gloves, caps and face scarves, Durbar Square, Patan Nepal

Working Women
Rebuilding after the devastation wrought on Patan’s Durbar Square by Nepal’s 25 April 2015 earthquake takes a lot of people-power. The task of unskilled labour is just as likely to go to the women.

Patan, or Lalitpur (ललितपुर), or Manigal, is an ancient Newari city of just over 200,000 people. It sits on the southern plateau of the Bagmati River, eight kilometers south of Kathmandu, and was – up until the conquest and unification in the late 1700s, under Prithvi Narayan Shah, the Gorkha Prince and future King of Nepal – it’s own kingdom.

The Malla Kings of Lalitpur, like those in the other two Newari kingdoms in the Kathmandu Valley: Bhaktapur (see: Joy among the Ruins and Living Heritage) and Kathmandu, focused their palace on a Durbar (Royal) Square comprising temples, shrines, open courts, water fountains, and private buildings. As I’ve noted before (see: City Of Devotion And Fine Arts), Patan was initially designed in the shape of the Buddhist Dharma-Chakra (Wheel of Righteousness). One of the oldest Buddhist cities in the world, it is also a center of Hinduism, and its collection of culturally meaningful and artistically beautiful buildings – as well as its reputation for fine craftsmanship – results in the city’s centre being a valued part of the Kathmandu Valley UNESCO World Heritage-listing.

Most of the current architecture is from the 1600s, and this very antiquity probably contributed to the almost-complete destruction that Patan’s Durbar Square experienced during the 7.8 magnitude earthquake in Nepal on 25 April 2015.

When I visited almost two years later, the earthquake damage was still manifest: rubble was everywhere where the ancient buildings used to be. But, Patan has rich artistic traditions, and the craftsmanship that went into the carved wood, the ornate metalwork, and the sculpted stone in the original buildings is still available for the reconstruction process.

Nepal is among the least developed countries in the world, with over a quarter of the population defined as below poverty line, and a huge unskilled workforce. The up-side of this is that there is no shortage of unskilled labour to turn the brick piles recovered from precious temple ruins back into buildings.

And, people mostly do this with a smile.

Old woman selling bird food, Durbar Square, Patan Nepal

Bird Woman
For a small price, you can invest in bird food and good karma; …

Man feeding pigeons, Durbar Square, Patan Nepal

Photographer Jack Kurtz and the Pigeons
… visitors and locals alike take the opportunity to create goodwill.

Applying a Bindi
People routinely stop into the temples around the square to make an offering, say a prayer, and apply a bindi.

Guardian Lions
One of the reasons Patan is called “The City of Fine Arts” is the ornate craftsmanship decorating the buildings. The wood, stone, brick, and metalwork in this temple front is just one of countless examples around the square and beyond. A pair of guardian lions, believed to have mythic protective powers, flank the doorway.

Building Front
Even the shophouses and residential buildings feature beautifully carved and freshly painted detailing.

Schoolgirl in the Street
The city might be UNESCO-listed for its rich cultural history …

Students in the Street
… but many of the people within it are youthful and forward-looking.

People in the Street
The streets are busy with people going about their daily business.

Lions in the Shadows
Another pair of guardian lions stand in front of the wreckage of Radha Krishna Temple, which collapsed in the April 2015 Nepal earthquake.

Swotha Krishna Mandir
Right next to the ruins, the Swotha Krishna Mandir Temple stands without a mark …

Time Out – Swotha Krishna Mandir
.. and life continues.

Temple Bell
Contrasts are everywhere: a shiny new motorcycle sits parked in the laneway next to an ancient small shrine.

Scaffolding
So many damaged buildings need propping up while they are being repaired.

Clay Tiles
Bricks and tiles from earthquake-damaged buildings have been carefully removed and piled nearby.

Chyasi Deval Krishna Temple
If you look one direction in Durbar Square, ancient temples stand tall. The Chyasi Deval Krishna Temple, behind the fountain here, is thought to date to 1723, under King Vishnu Malla. The eight-sided (Chyasim or Chyasing) structure was built in the Shikara style which is prominent in India, and is almost unscathed, …

Durbar Square Elephants
… while other buildings nearby are in fenced-off ruins.

Men on the Stoop
The Patan Palace itself has been repurposed as the Patan Museum, and the stoop outside seems to be a regular meeting place …

Men in their Dhaka Topi
… for the local men, all in their colourful hand-spun cotton inlay-patterned Nepali hats.

Women Piling Bricks
The painstaking labour-intensive work continues.

Woman and Cement Buckets
Some of the women have been transporting cement buckets, using shoulder poles.

Laying Bricks
Others are rebuilding old walls. While it might be impressive that these women are wearing hard-hats, you cannot see their feet – which are either shod in soft shoes or flip-flops.