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After the Earthquakes: Damaged Ancient Heritage Sites in Mustang Challenges for Renovation, Restoration and Reconstruction Susanne von der Heide, HimalAsia Foundation So violently have the earthquakes hit Nepal in April and May 2015 that even remotest areas have been effected badly. 39 districts in the Western and Central regions, out of 75 districts have been affected; nine of them, - from Rasuwa to Solukhumbu (the Mount Everest region), including the three districts of the Kathmandu Valley, - have borne the brunt of the impact. Traditional mud and mortar houses have been demolished on a very large scale in a much wider area, including Gorkha, Lamjung, Manang and Mustang. Even in Tibet, along the Nepalese border the impact of the quakes has been huge. Besides the dreadful loss of so many lives, the earthquakes have destroyed much of the cultural heritage of the country. According to the Department of Archaeology (DOA), a total of 750 historical, cultural, and religious monuments in 20 districts were damaged by the earthquakes and the aftershocks. Especially in the Kathmandu Valley important religious and historic buildings have been completely destroyed. But badly hit where also world famous heritage places in Mustang, where one of the oldest trading and pilgrimage paths leads through the Himalayas, - an ancient passage linking the Buddhist sites around Lumbini and Bodh Gaya with Western Tibet and the Silk Road. The whole area of Mustang is dotted with early Buddhist cave temples as well as century old fortresses. Some of the best preserved ancient monasteries in the Himalaya are found there, which formed an extraordinary Buddhist cultural landscape over the centuries, thus becoming one of the last areas in the world where a specific Buddhist culture is preserved up to the present day. The earthquakes left some of these sites in ruins. In the immediate aftermath of the earthquakes the author together with the representative of Mustang in the Parliament had carried out an assessment of the affected buildings, monuments and rock cave temples. Besides, they distributed tents ordered from Lhasa and aluminium sheets as well as provisions, - rice, dhal, tea, sugar and oil, to cover the immediate needs of so many people who lost their homes in Mustang. Right after the first quake on the 25t of April the office of the CDO of Mustang already had conducted an overall assessment but after the second quake of May 12th many more buildings where unfortunately afflicted. Damages in Lo Manthang, a Tentative UNESCO World Heritage Site Many of the ruined buildings in Nepal, including the vernacular heritage, are UNESCO World Heritage sites, as the famous Durbar Squares and Stupas in the Kathmandu Valley. Other afflicted monuments had been included on the Tentative UNESCO List for World Heritage designation, as f.e. in 2008 the medieval city of Lo Manthang, the ancient capital of the former kingdom of Mustang. Lo is famous for its 6-metre high-rammed earth wall, surrounding the densely inhabited place and the three magnificent Buddhist monasteries. These Gompas date from the 15th and the 18th centuries and are housing amazing statues and wall paintings, as well great collections of ancient texts. Fortunately, only minor damages occurred at the medieval wall; and the monasteries of Jhampa Lhakhang and Thubchen Lhakhang, which were recently 1 restored by the Himalayan Foundation, both temple-sites constructed in the 15th century, are intact, no damages occurred at the architectural structures. Whereas the 18th century Choede Monastery, which was not restored, sustained severe destruction, especially in the first floor of the main monastic building, where cracks and fissures are all over, wooden beams and plaster are falling off the walls and from the ceilings. Moreover, the Mahakala Goenkhang, containing statues and thangkas of the protecting deities, is completely destroyed, and all artefacts were moved to other rooms in the monastic complex and need to be documented now. The Gonkhang needs to be reconstructed, since the damages cannot be repaired. The abott of the monastery and his monks wants to rebuild the temple in the traditional rammed earth technique. Furthermore, the small museum building inside the monastic complex, with a precious collection of thangkas, sculptures and ancient textbooks, gathered from cavetemple sites around Lo, sustained partial damage. Since there are several cracks in the building, the museum will need to be repaired. At the old hostel of Choede Monastery huge cracks occur nearly in all rooms. Fig. 0: The Mahakala Goenkhang at Choede Monastery after the earthquake Very sadly, the main icon and largest structure of Lo Manthang, the 5-storyed medieval 15th century old Tashi Gephel Palace, the first building to be constructed in the city, is about to collapse. Its traditional rammed earth walls are full of structural damages, with huge horizontal and vertical cracks. Fig.1: Tashi Gephel Palace during Tiji Festival Fig. 2: Deep cracks occur on the walls of the Palace Inside the building wooden beams are jutting out of the ceiling, and the whole roof is in need of a complete renovation. The altar area, partially with life-sized statues, other valuable paraphernalia, as well as the library, containing precious Prajnaparamita texts, and the Kanjur and Tenjur, had to be vacated; the objects are in urgent need of documentation. 2 Fig.3: The vacated library The huge structure of the Palace in the middle of the city, larger than the surrounding monasteries, is reminding of the importance that has been given to the Lopa Rajas in the past. After the catastrophe, the family of the former king of Mustang is living in tents now outside of the walled city. Since many years the Raja had been requested by different restoration organisations to get his Durbar Palace restored, However, he always gave preference to the temples and chorten of Lo, since, as he argued, ‘they belong to the Lopa people and need to be taken care of first’. Besides, out of 153 Households in Lo, 10 of them have sustained serious damages, many others are suffering from cracks in the rammed earthern walls and are instable. Fortunately, the recently restored places in Lo, including the huge Chorten inside and outside of Lo, are relatively unharmed. Damages at other Ancient Sites It is hardly known to the outside world, since fortunately no human losses had to be mourned, that in Mustang some major heritage sites and two whole villages, Ghelling and Tetang, were totally destroyed. Besides, many traditional buildings, as well as nine schools at different places all over the district suffer from considerable damage. Several of the old Buddhist monasteries and rock cave temples, for which Mustang is so famous, dzongs and ancient palaces have been badly damaged or cracked: The Summer Palace of the former Raja, build at the end of the 18 th century, located in Thingkar in the north of Lo, is completely ruined now, and it will be difficult to get support for the restoration of this ancient building. Also the Namgyal Gompa, half an hour away from Lo, - a Sakya Ngor Monastery, which was originally constructed by the famous Buddhist scholar Ngorchen Kunga Zangpo in the 15th century, altered several times in the following centuries, - suffered severe damages at the main Lhakhang. Fig 4. Namgyal Gompa after the earthquakes 3 Shortly before the earthquake, the abbot of the monastery and the monks living there had decided to rebuild their main Lhakhang in the traditional rammed earth technique because they are in need of a bigger building and have limited space. They had discussed this matter before in detail with different restoration organisations including HimalAsia. Since after the earthquake the main monastic complex is laying in ruins, they are discussing now to reconstruct the Lhakhang with the help of compressed brick machines, producing bricks by mixing local material with five percent of cement to get a stronger, resistant structure. This technique has been already successfully implemented for the construction of houses in Ladakh, since more precipitation in the last few years made it necessary to introduce other building techniques. Same climate conditions appear in Mustang. Shortly before the first earthquake hit Nepal so badly, a workshop for participants from Mustang, including some monks from Namgyal and Choede Monastery, was conducted by HimalAsia in Bhaktapur with the financial support of OCHSPA, discussing, besides other topics, alternative building technologies for Mustang. A compressed brick machine, sent by UN Habitat, was introduced to the participants at that time, and a great demand for this technology arose between the monks. Very badly hit was, moreover, the Thubten Shedrup Dhargyeling Monastery in Tsarang, also a so-called Ngor Sakya Gompa, which was built in the 16 th century under the patronage of King Samdrup Dorje. Here the first and second floor sustained considerable damage, many rooms need to be rebuild, since cracks in the walls and ceilings are found all over. The roof has to be completely renewed. The adjacent service buildings, which include the dormitory rooms of the monks and novices, as well as the kitchen, sustained partial damage, therefore the walls and ceilings need to be renovated. Fig.5: Inhabitants of Tsarang praying for protection outside of their destroyed Gompa Sadly, the old Samdup Gephel Palace of Tsarang, built even before the Darbar in Lo Manthang in the 14 th century, - which has been already in a very bad shape, suffered most. Sections of the building are about to fall apart. The ancient altar room and library have suffered enduring damage, and the treasured Kanjur and the Prajnaparamita text collections, as well as the marvelously rendered metal, clay and wooden statues, have been partly shifted to the monasteries in Lo Manthang. Fig. 6: The Samdup Gephel Palace in Tsarang was badly damaged 4 The two massive earthquakes had also severely hit the whole village of Ghelling, including the monastery. Around 350 people live in this village, and there is not a building left that was not badly affected by the quakes. Since all constructions are done in rammed earth technique, most of the houses have to be completely torn down in order to rebuild them properly. Fig. 7: Family in Ghelling in front of their destroyed house and the heavily damaged Tashi Choeling Monastery. The inhabitants of Ghelling are staying in tents now, having been distributed by HimalAsia The Pal Sa-Ngor Tashi Choeling Monastery in Ghelling, founded by the local great scholar Lowo Khenchen Sonam Lhundup in the second half of the 15 th century, had as well suffered from severe damages. This place had become especially renowned when the late Tharig Rinpoche, after escaping from Tibet in 1959, took his residence here. In the main Gompa, especially in the first floor, cracks are occurring nearly everywhere, wooden beams are protruding from ceilings and floors and the roof has to be completely renewed. Fig. 8: Huge cracks at first floor of Ghelling Gompa The Gonkhang in particular, the shrine of the protecting deities next to the main Gompa, sustained bad damages, so that the rammed earth walls need to be demolished and newly erected. Besides, the service building next to the Lhakhang has to be renovated completely. Also the massive Chorten around the Gompa are in need of urgent repair. Furthermore, in the area of Chukksang, the ancient village temple, Chuk Braga Mani Lhakhang, as well as the Gompa Khang complex, a Nyingma pa monastery, originally build in the 15th century for nuns, suffered major damages. Fig. 9: The village temple of Chhuksang suffered considerable damage 5 At both sites the roof-areas are in desperate need of repair and parts of the buildings are completely instable and about to collapse. In the adjacent village of Tetang unfortunately all 46 houses are in ruins now. This place, established centuries ago, appears from a distance like an ancient fortress, since all buildings here are interlinked with each other and look rather like an ancient Pueblo settlement. Unfortunately it will not be possible to safeguard this site, as it seems in the moment. After several meetings with the villagers, the author was requested, in the presence of the representative of Mustang in the Parliament, if HimalAsia could help the community to resettle the whole village. Fig.10: Villagers of Tetang in front of the remains of their house, with food provisions, distributed by HimalAsia Fig 11: The whole village of Tetang needs to be rebuilt Fig.12: Tetang is completely in ruins 6 Damages at Buddhist Cave Sites The beautifully Tashi Kabum rock cave, adorned with marvelous rendered mural paintings on the Chorten and surrounding walls from the 14 th century, suffered substantially as well. In the middle of the cavesite the dome of the Chorten, the so called anda, symbolizing the element of water, is heavily damaged. The murals around the wall are interlaced with cracks and fissures, in particular the striking image of Avalokiteshvara is full of them, and plaster is falling off from the image. Moreover, the rocky path leading up to the Kabum has been destroyed and is no longer passable; one has to climb to the cave now, which is quite dangerous without mountain equipment. Since this has always been a site, far away from villages or other settlements, it is doubtful if any restoration will be carried out here in the future. Fig. 13: The Tashi Kabum cavesite suffered major damages The same fate will happen to the earlier established Dagrangjung Kabum/Chorten with extraordinary wall paintings dating from the early 13 th century, showing Pala influences. It was discovered that this cavesite had also sadly suffered great internal damage. The dome of that Stupa has been always invisible, but now, only the upper portion of the Chorten, the chattra and the ketu, is left to view, as a result of collapse. Unfortunately, the exceptional murals, a frieze with originally twelve medallions, are completely fragmented now, the plaster has entirely fallen off and disintegrated. The very rare depictions showed representations of Hindu goddesses presenting offerings for the Buddha, and two rosettes with the Hindu deities Brahma and Indra, both reverently facing the Stupa, which represents the Buddha. Fig.14: Extraordinary wall paintings, depicting Hindu deities at Dagrangjung The whole cult room is filled up with rubble, and it is extremely difficult to reach this site now. The early Buddhist iconography recurringly shows paintings of the Buddha frequently accompanied by Brahma and Indra. According to Buddhist narratives, it is said that the first teaching of Buddha was given at the request of Brahma and Indra. It is therefore extremely sad, that the paintings at Dagrangjung are so badly damaged now, since they are important evidences of this early Buddhist period in the Himalayas. 7 Always threatened by decay, but still reachable was/is another cave complex at Choezong, next to the Tibetan border. This comprises a Lakhang and a particularly interesting protective deity- and initiation temple (shrungma) with paintings of meditative deities from the Mahayoga Tantra, most probably from the 14 th century. Further, in front of the paintings, clay figures from Caturbujha Mahakala and his retinue can be found. This incredible site is fortunately still intact; but the cavesite above, a small initiation temple carved into a rockcliff, with exceptional wall paintings is badly destroyed now and can’t be reached anymore. Fig. 15: Amitabha and his entourage at the Choedzong cavetemple Here, images of the meditative Buddhas Vairocana and Amithaba and their entourages, as well as Hevajra in Yab Yum, with his female partner, have been identified by the author years ago. This initiation temple presumedly dates from the end of the 12 th century and was rendered partly in Pala style. It is very sad to state that it will be extremely difficult to find any support for the restoration or reconstruction of these three cavesites with their historical important wallpaintings, unique in Nepal, since the places are far away from any settlement and only occasionally visited by villagers, so that no proper maintenance can be carried out at all. Only if a tourism scheme would be developed to highlight these sites, there might be a slight chance to get financial support for the restoration of these caves. Reconstruction, Preservation, Documentation and Practical Training Aside from the three cavesites, that unfortunately cannot be saved, the above mentioned ancient monuments and valuable traditional buildings are in need to be restored or renovated now, only if they are not demolished and rebuild, or as in the case of Tetang village, being resettled and reconstructed in an adjacent area. HimalAsia assisted the local communities to salvage fragments of damaged temples, stabilize vulnerable structures and secure artefacts at temporary storages. Further, it was discussed how important the reuse of the remaining architecturel elements is, f.e., carved struts and beams, retrieved from the ruins, that will be utilized for restoration and reconstruction of their heritage buildings. Especially in the community of Lo Manthang, being a tentative UNESCO World Heritage Site, it was discussed, moreover, how important it is to apply traditional materials for the renovation and reconstruction of buildings and to sustain the local workmanship in regard of the site’s authenticity. If, for technical reasons, modern materials need to be used, they should be durable and preferably equivalent to traditional materials. Further, it has to be taken into account that the overall integrity of the heritage site should not be disturbed. 8 Unfortunately, there are a few examples in Lo already, including the newly build Shedra for monks at the Choede Monastery, where modern material like cement is employed. After the earthquakes, in all of Nepal the demand for using cement for constructions will rise, due to the fact that people unfortunately think it is safer than other materials. Also in this context, it is interesting to note that those heritage sites, restored or renovated recently or some decades ago in Mustang in the traditional way are all unharmed. Whereas destroyed houses in the Kathmandu Valley and surrounding areas can partly be repaired by using various techniques of retrofitting, this is not so easy in the case of the vernacular architecture of the traditional buildings in Mustang, using timber, stones and rammed earth technique. If once a building, constructed in rammed earth-technique, sustaines major structural damage, mostly the whole house needs to be rebuild, depending on the cracks in the walls, as in the case of the village of Ghelling. It is a very costly task and villagers should be financially supported in this regard. Since their ancient settlement cannot be renovated and repaired any more, the community of the village of Tetang requested HimalAsia to support them to resettle their entire village and introduce alternative building techniques to them. There are sustainable housing models, introduced by UN Habitat and other organisations, using local materials that are adapted to the setting and climate. These housing models are taking into account the need for modernization due to changes in lifestyle; in this context, an applicable technique might be the use of compressed bricks for rebuilding the destroyed houses of Tetang. Besides, HimalAsia has begun to carry out practical training workshops in Bhaktapur for carpenters from different areas in Mustang, in order to help them to achieve and improve construction and building techniques. These training sessions should be continued during wintertime when many of the Lopa people are descending down from Mustang to stay during the cold season in places like Boudha or Swayambhu in the Kathmandu Valley. Moreover, HimalAsia intends to conduct more practical training workshops to introduce documentation concepts, the handling of objects and different preservation techniques, to safeguard objects and heritage fragments, since this has been requested from monks and involved families from Mustang. Another aim of these workshops is to increase capacity building and to help to develop a strong sense for the cultural significance of the area of Mustang. Based on the above information, there is a clear need for protecting the heritage and livelihood of the Mustang people. Mustang is not only a very important historical and cultural heritage site, but also one of the most sacred landscapes in the Himalayan area. The devastating earthquakes have ruined and damaged many of the famous heritage places of Mustang, which is also a significant tourist destination. Besides, the out-migration of the Lopa people to the south and to other countries will increase, if this area is not supported. Substantial financial backing and skill based training is therefore imperative for future restoration and reconstruction projects for this region. 9