Gaddi Baithak open for public

Kathmandu, June 27: The 110-year-old Gaddi Baithak at Basantapur Durbar Square, which was severely damaged in the devastating Gorkha Earthquake 2015, has been restored to its original British neo-classical form.

The monument at the UNESCO World Heritage Site and the face of the Basantapur Durbar Square was restored with a US$ 700,000 grant support from the US Government’s Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) in partnership with Miyamoto Global Disaster Relief and Department of Archaeology (DOA).

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Charge d’Affairs Peter Malnak of the US Embassy jointly inaugurated the restored building amidst a programme on Wednesday.

Addressing the ceremony, Prime Minister Oli said that with the reconstruction of every house and monument, the confidence of the people had gone up.

Appreciating the support of the US government, he said that the confidence between the two governments had increased.

He also said that there was much to do in terms of house, school, health institution and heritage reconstruction. “At the same time, the country should also be prepared for future disasters,” he said.

Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Rabindra Adhikari said that the restoration of cultural and historical monuments was instrumental for tourism sector.

According to Malnak, this collaborative effort between Nepali and American cultural heritage experts presented an opportunity to restore and seismically strengthen Gaddi Baithak, one of the most important structures of Nepal’s cultural heritage and history.

While restoring this heritage site, engineers specialising in earthquake resilience teamed up with architects experienced in cultural heritage preservation and restoration.  Together they designed and oversaw the restoration of the building, including targeted structural interventions to improve the building’s seismic strength without compromising on its architectural integrity. 

These efforts also used local craftspeople and traditional building materials and techniques to ensure that the Gaddi Baithak is now more resilient to earthquakes and will be preserved for future generations, said the US Embassy.

Mahadev, Khageshwor, Laxmi Narayan and Saraswati Temples at the Kathmandu Durbar Square, a couple of centuries old, were also inaugurated on the occasion.

Through the AFCP’s post-earthquake emergency grant of $200,000, the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust (KVPT) restored and seismically strengthened these Newari style architectural monuments.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 28 June 2018.