The daunting task of rebuilding a nation’s soul
Killer quake turned ancient brick cities and palaces into dust
In his 1933 novel Lost Horizon, English writer James Hilton introduced the world to Shangri-La, a monastery high up in the Tibetan mountains.
For Hugh Conway, the protagonist of Hilton’s book, first seeing the coloured pavilions jutting out of the snow-capped mountainside evoked a feeling of “having reached at last some place that was an end, a finality.” Hilton’s Shangri-La was a place of beauty and culture that needed to be protected against the chaos and destruction that man could cause.
Today, Himalayan nations such as Nepal have come to represent the fictional Shangri-La, a mystical, isolated and earthly paradise. Last week, it wasn’t man, but nature — a 7.8 magnitude earthquake — that turned the ancient brick cities and palaces that give the country its soul into dust. And man is now tasked with rebuilding what it may not be able to rebuild.
The remote mountainous nation of 27 million has a “living history and a living religion,” wrote journalist Donatella Lorch in an essay published in the New York Times this week. For the hundreds of thousands of foreigners who visit Nepal each year — from eager young backpackers to those well into their senior years — the description is bang on.
Kathmandu — despite its traffic jams, the garbage strewn all over the ground and the pollution that has a way of attaching a thin film to your skin — is different from Delhi, Bangkok and other concrete jungles in nearby developing nations. As Lorch, who has been living in Kathmandu for two years, points out, ancient Buddhist chaityas and Hindu shrines can be found on almost every street.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, the human loss has taken priority, as it should. More than 6,000 people have died, and the country’s prime minister, Sushil Koirala, said it could surpass 10,000. We don’t yet know the extent of the damage in rural areas such as Gorkha, near the Tibetan border, where initial reports say entire villages have been wiped out.
But it’s this notion of a living history and religion that makes the destruction of the country’s cultural landmarks and religious sites (10 of them World Heritage sites) especially devastating.
UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova called the loss “extensive and irreversible.”
The sites destroyed are not just tourist attractions. “There is so much more lost in the national identity of Nepal,” said Dan Szczesny, author of The Nepal Chronicles, a book about his journey to marry his wife in Kathmandu, then trek to the Mount Everest base camp.
The path to Everest, severely damaged by the earthquake and an ensuing avalanche, is not just a trekking route but a pilgrimage site for those who receive blessings at the Tengboche Monastery, where a large statue of Buddha is deified.
Durbar squares (royal palace squares) in Kathmandu and nearby Patan, made up of tiered temples and shrines dating back to the 10th century, were reduced to rubble. The squares have “literal portals for Hindus and Buddhists to seek enlightenment and attainment to get close to God,” said Szczesny. Families venerate there on a daily basis and visitors can sense the spirituality and community that comes from that. Festivals that can last days centre on the squares.
Nepalese author Samrat Upadhyay, now living and teaching in Indiana, said he has strong memories of hang- ing out in Kathmandu’s Durbar square as a teenager or vegetable shopping in Bhaktapur, an ancient pink-bricked city just outside Kathmandu that was levelled by the earthquake.
Each year, Upadhyay returns home with some of his students. “I’ve taken a lot of pride in taking my students around and showing them the monuments,” he said.
While Nepal is wedged between two giants — China and India — and has absorbed many influences from its neighbours, the country has managed to remain unique. The people are mostly Hindu, with 11 per cent of the population Buddhist; 127 different languages and dialects are spoken. The diversity is a point of pride. All Nepalese, even children, are extremely proud that for 2,000 years they have never been conquered or colonized.
Upadhyay, whose books often explore the intersection of ancient and modern traditions in Nepal, is wary but optimistic the country can rebuild. “I think what people have on their side is Nepalis are very strong people.”
And they have rebuilt from natural disasters before.
Kathmandu’s historic Dharahara tower also collapsed, trapping 40 inside. It was destroyed previously, in 1934, after an earthquake of similar magnitude. And it rose again.
“I think we can rebuild a big part of the destroyed monuments,” Christian Manhart, director of the UNESCO office in Kathmandu, said in an interview Thursday.
Earlier that day, he’d met with a group of 25 people, including architects, engineers and officials from the government’s department of archeology, who have started a database to assess the damage.
There have been reports of attempts to steal artifacts, such as a bronze bell from the roof of a temple. Pedestrians have picked up bricks to take home, apparently as mementos. That will be yet another obstacle in the rebuilding efforts, though Manhart said his team is beginning to work with communities to ensure features like carved wood beams and cornerstones, currently lying in the rubble, are protected from looting and the elements.
A few weeks from now, Manhart said, the group will begin to reinforce damaged structures. The plan is to reuse the features they are working to protect. They will also depend on the “excellent documentation” they have of the World Heritage and other sites, including detailed drawings and measurements.
But all of this will require “a lot of time and money.” The “very little money” they have now amounts to some UNESCO seed funds and a few donations, including $250,000 from Hong Kong, he said.
Manhart, who came to Nepal just eight months ago, noted he, too, was moved by the spiritual connection the people had to the structures he is now trying to resurrect.
“With the loss of the tangible heritage we also risk the loss of intangible heritage.” he said.
It’s a heritage that, if lost, would have consequences far beyond the borders of Nepal. There are, simply, not many places like it in the world.
In Hilton’s Lost Horizon, the High Lama, says the world has become filled with greed and brutality. And people, someday, will search for something else.
“We have a heritage to cherish and bequeath,” the Lama says.
“I think we can rebuild a big part of the destroyed monuments.” CHRISTIAN MANHART DIRECTOR, UNESCO OFFICE IN KATHMANDU