Patan Durbar square revisited

Namaste,

One of my favourite places in Kathmandu was Patan Durbar Square, the old palace square filled with ancient temples.  When I was living in Kathmandu in 2013 I would walk here, just to sit there and take in the atmosphere and the culture. It was a brilliant place to people-watch, as the Nepalis love this place too, so there were always lots of people there.

The area was badly damaged in the earthquake of April 2015.  It was interesting, on my return to Kathmandu two years later, to take a walk through the narrow back alleyways through Patan to the old palace square.

Two things struck me;

Firstly there was so much reconstruction going on; old brick houses in the alleyways, some still propped up with wooden struts, some being repaired. In other places there were new houses to replace ones beyond repair. There were piles of bricks stacked waiting for use at the side of the road near sites where buildings had been demolished.

Secondly, in Patan Durbar Square itself the rebuilding of the ancient temples, where, immediately after the earthquake I had observed every brick being salvaged and stacked, every carved piece of wood being removed from the wreckage and stored to await rebuilding. Now you could see the ancient temples being rebuilt, from the foundations upwards. 




Great care is being employed to restore these temples to their original magnificence.  Some are still shrouded in scaffolding or supported by strong wooden beams waiting for their turn.

 The Square itself was busy with both tourists and Nepalis. It will be interesting to visit again in a few years time when all the rebuilding is completed and the square is back to its original state.