Bhaktapur was the first capital city of the Malla Kings, who ruled the Kathmandu Valley and much of the surrounding region from the 13^th century AD, prior to its division into three kingdoms by scions of the Malla Royal family.  Bhaktapur lost its prominence in the new Nepal that emerged subsequent to 1769, as Kathmandu with Patan ( the other two capitals) became the seat of political power of a much larger country. The period of stagnation and decay of Bhaktapur continued up to the 1960’s.

In the early 1970’s, the Bhaktapur Development Project was launched by the His Majesty’s Government of Nepal, with financial and technical assistance from the German Government, as a high profile national project on the preservation and renewal of a historic town. Its evolution as a national project, sometimes perceived as elitist, into a local development project is an interesting area of study. The Project set into motion a deep interest in preservation of built cultural heritage,  standards of conservation work, revival of traditional building craft, and the promotion of the idea that conservation and development can go together in historic cities.  This momentum has been sustained by the elected Municipal Government of Bhaktapur and taken to another level, in terms of citizen participation and sustainability.

This paper attempts to describe the nature and impacts of the two generations of interventions in the management and development of Bhaktapur.

Urbanization in the Kathmandu Valley

Settlements emerged in the Kathmandu Valley over two millennia ago. These were settled and ruled by the Kirats, the indigenous people of the Valley region. Subsequently, Licchavis, who are believed to have migrated from the Gangetic plains, settled the Valley and ruled  for several centuries. This period saw the establishment of towns and capital cities organized on the principles prescribed in Vedic texts. The Kirat settlements and their sacred sites were absorbed by this evolving urban structure. Towards the end of this period, the Mallas emerged as the political force in the Valley, and consolidated their power in Bhaktapur. This period, which lasted up to the eighteenth century, is marked by extraordinary achievements in urban planning, architecture, arts/crafts, infrastructure achievements, and development of socio-cultural institutions for urban management.

The medieval urban structure of the Kathmandu Valley as we see today, consisting of the three principal capital cities, secondary cities (Thimi, Kirtipur) and satellite settlements (Bungamati, Harisiddhi, Panauti), which is evidence of an unique achievement in urban development history, is a product of the Malla Period.

“Around the 2^nd century AD, towards the end of the Kirat Period and by the early Licchavi period, small town-like settlements began to emerge on high ground (tar) on the Kathmandu Valley floor. Using Licchavi names, they were towns like Khopring (Bhaktapur), Lembati (Lele), Bungayumi (Bungamati). Along with these settlements new piths (power places) took root. By the middle of the Licchavi period, around the 7^th century AD, many temple towns had developed within the Valley, which may have vied in size and importance with the capital towns like Maneswor, Deupatan, which were themselves expanding. These towns usually developed on ridges adjacent to rivers on land, not productive agriculturally.” [1]

The smaller Licchavi settlements developed into Malla towns, energized by the abundant agriculture and trade, developed into the accomplished Malla cities whose ambience is so decisively present even today. Meanwhile the Licchavi villages producing agriculture produce or labor services were developing under the Mallas as specialized satellite towns, serving one of the three principal city-states.

This urban structure remained largely unchanged in the Post-Malla period of the last two centuries, except for the construction of large neo-classical palace compounds (favored by the Rana rulers prior to 1950) and new settlements around them.

The urban landscape transformed dramatically, since the 60’s, into an urban sprawl stretching across the Valley, driven by the vehicular arteries and migration into the Capital region from a much larger nation state. The agricultural landscape, preserved over centuries, is being rapidly transformed through fragmented colonization, shaped by the existing cadastral formation of the paddy field, with irrigation channels and cattle tracks serving as the guiding factors. Access and city services are the only major considerations. This kind of urbanization has also put intense pressure in the historic urban cores enclosed by this urban sprawl. The resulting speculative development has taken urbanization further into the farmlands, where cheaper land is available which has, in turn, perpetuated slum formation, since infrastructure follows much later. This phenomenon of urbanization has been slow in the Bhaktapur area in the past, but is gathering momentum in the past few years.

CITY OF BHAKTAPUR

The city of Bhaktapur is believed to have coalesced from the amalgamation of several Pre-Licchavi settlements that settled the ridge, parallel on the northern side of the Hanumante river. Inscriptions found in Bhaktapur mention the existence of three settlements. The oldest being Khopringga, which is occupied by the eastern part of the town today, the Tacapal Ward. The western part, Makhopringga, is the site of Durbar Square, a World Heritage Site and one of the three principal urban squares of the city  today.[2] The western edge of the Khopringaa, the Taumadhi square, is now the most important urban square in the city today. Architecturally the most significant temple structure, the five-storied Nyatapola, and the Bhairab Temples are located here. The Taumadhi Square is located almost in the middle of the winding main spine of Bhaktapur, whose eastern end is close to the third important square of Bhaktapur, the Dattareya Square, around which the ancient royal palace of Bhaktapur is believed to have existed. The winding axis from Taumadhi square, which ends at Yashimkhel at the Funerary Ghats (stepped river embankments) along the Hanumante River, is also the most important space for annual rituals in Bhaktapur. The Bisket Jatra, the new year’s festival and the most important cultural event in Bhaktapur, is staged in this region. This southern slope of the city between Taumadhi and the river Ghats is mentioned in inscriptions as Makhodula, the third settlement. This southern slope of the city is also known as the “Lower Town”. The cultural difference between the Upper Town and lower Town is enacted in the Bisket Jatra (festival) by the Bhairab Chariot being pulled by representatives from the “two towns”, belonging to the Farmer community, in opposite directions. It is believed that Bhupatindra Malla, the last great Malla builder of Bhaktapur who constructed the Nyatapole temple in 1703, instituted this festival as a gesture towards cultural unification of the City.

It is believed that Ananda Malla in the 13^th century unified the two Royal houses that existed in the two ends of the city, in Dattaterya Square and Layaku, the present Durbar Square Area. Bhaktapur, thus, became the first capital city of Malla Rulers in the Valley.  Yaksha Malla shifted the Royal palace to the current site in 1453, thus causing the shift of entire communities considered close to the palace to the western part of the city. The City west of the Taumadhi square is believed to have been developed subsequent to this event.[3]

The historic urban core of Bhaktapur is considered to have 24 Toles or Wards today. The wards are not geographically separated by streets, but are rather spatial fields understood through a host of rituals. The wards consist of residential courtyards, and streets which break into urban spaces of different scale. The principal square in the ward is marked by the shrine of Ganesh, who is acceptable to both Hindus and Buddhist. These systems of spaces play host to a variety of religious, secular and economic activities for the residents of the wards. The principal ritual, which describes the boundary of the ward is the funerary route, taken by the residents to the river ghats by the residents to cremate their dead. Specific Ghats are assigned to Specific number of toles/wards. The three ghats are located along the Hanumante river, at the south, south-east and east of the city.

The city of Bhaktapur, is built on a ridge stretching east to west and is flanked by the river Hanumante on the south and the river Kasan Khusi on the North. In fact, the principal artery of Bhaktapur runs almost parallel to the winding course of Hanumante river. The eastern and western limits of the city, which do not have watercourses, are the site of two large ponds, the Siddha Pokhari and Kamal Pokhari. This was probably done to endow the wards at these ends of town with water bodies in proximity, essential for rituals related to the dead.

The Malla rule brought the dominance of the Shakti cult in the Valley. To delimit the geographical reach of the city and to endow it with characteristics befitting a royal city, the concept of Astramatrikas, eight mother goddesses, was overlaid on the existing city. These eight power deities are located as sets of Dyochen and Piths. The Dyochen is situated within the perimeter of the Sacred city, marked by the Pradakshina (the circumbulatory path), and the Pith, which usually is located in a ecologically sensitive site around the city. Once a year a procession is taken from each Dyochhen to its corresponding Pith. The settlement could develop in the space between the Dyochen and the Piths. It was paramount to protect the ecologically critical  sites and the agricultural fertile land. “Indeed the linkage of the resource base, the surrounding agricultural land, to the town was stated explicitly by the structure of the settlement and perpetuated through religio-cultural behavior pattern popularized by rituals and festivals, that enabled the regulatory controls to be administered through several generations in the future”[4]

The Pradkshina prescribed the sacred town within it, and may have been walled at some period marked by “nine gates”. Some of these gates still exist, although not in their original physical form. The urban structure of Bhaktapur is defined by the variety of rituals and festivals and their relationship to routes and specific urban spaces. Specific deities in a site are not isolated idols, but rather are part of a system of similar deities and correspond to rituals on specific days of the calendar. The urban form, thus acquires deep religio-cultural meaning which continues today, and forms the very essence of urban life in Bhaktapur.

BHAKTAPUR DEVELOPMENT PROJECT

The conquest of the Valley by King Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha (a principality in western Nepal) in 1769, amalgamated Bhaktapur into the larger Kingdom of Nepal. As Kathmandu became the capital of the country, Bhaktapur lost its significance as a city. The 1934 earthquake also caused substantial destruction in the city.  The construction of the new highway to Tibet also bypassed the city, thus its earlier trading status was also depleted. In retrospect though, this event also may have saved Bhaktapur’s original urban form, from irreparable transformation. Bhaktapur upto the 1960’s was subscribed to medieval obsoleteness and urban decay.

To reverse the process of general decline of the city and to preserve its rich heritage, His majesty’s Government of Nepal in Collaboration with the Government of Federal Republic of Germany launched the Bhaktapur Development Project (BDP). Financial and Technical assistance was provided through the GTZ.

The BDP was established in 1974, initially covering an area of about 10% of the old town. The underlying concept at the start of the project was to initiate simultaneously various measures aimed at the comprehensive renewal and development of the city in order to strengthen its role in the Valley. In Bhaktapur, practically no data and statistics existed prior to the start of the project. Hence, it was one of the main tasks in the first half of the project (till 1979) to analyze the situation of the town, and to plan and work out  a strategy for its physical, economic, social and institutional development.

Planning and implementation of the project tasks were carried out concurrently rather than consecutively. It was the premise that the participation and cooperation of the local people in the planning of the town’s future required the motivation that only visible and concrete results on the ground could provide. [5]

The first phase of the project, from 1974-76, saw the restoration of monuments- public, semi-public and private, which were in poor physical condition. This work was carried out in buildings around the Dattatreya Square, presumably the oldest part of Bhaktapur. The effort was also to restore an urban ensemble, rather than individual buildings spread around the town. Some of the courtyards, which were restored, have been converted into Museums, and a Sattal (two-storeyed pavilion) houses a restaurant for tourists. Parallel to architectural restoration, renovation, repair as well as new construction of public infrastructure, for eg. Wells, ponds, paving of streets and lanes, laying of new sewer lines were also carried out. As the preservation and restoration of monuments was identified as the main focus of the first phase of project, the project was identified as a restoration project and undertaken with the Department of Archaeology, under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Culture.

During the second phase of the Project, which lasted for four years from 1976 to 1980, preservation and restoration did remain the guiding focus of the project. Alongside investment was made in the construction of infrastructure, such as water supply, drains, roads, pavements etc. Economic development activities were initiated with the construction of the Handicraft Center, and setting up of the Industrial estate in the northern part of town, where new technology and production system was introduced to old traits. To develop the social infrastructure, schools were also constructed by the project. New construction compatible with the traditional townscape was also achieved in these buildings. A process of institution building was also started and the corresponding sectoral agencies of the Government were also involved in the development of this phase. As this phase involved major infrastructure construction, the Ministry of Works and Transport was made the responsible ministry for this Phase.

The third phase of the project, from 1980 to 1983, changed focus considerably. The political climate in the country had shifted substantially. The opinion of the local people and the socio-political group represented by them had become a force, which had previously remained only peripheral to projects like the BDP. A radical change, however, in the established and working framework was difficult to undertake at this juncture. A compromise was effected to involve fully the local groups in the implementation of the small scale activities, and give wider representation to the elected representatives in the decision making and policy making bodies formed to guide this phase of the project. The local people were encouraged to form Local Development Committee to whom the project could delegate responsibilities. Most of these works were in the nature of restoration of small neighborhood temples, Patis (rest pavilions) etc. This part of the project had limited success due to tedious bureaucratic processes inherent in sectoral agencies, and ineffectiveness of the Town Panchyat (the Municipality prior to 1990), as well as problems of coordination in the LDC’s themselves.  One of the works initiated at this stage was the provision of financial and technical assistance to private homeowners to reconstruct or restore their houses according to the criteria laid out by the Project. The project had prepared detailed checklist by which the condition and the type of assistance required by a house could   be determined by and assistance provided. This idea met with very limited success, since the subsidy was not really need based, only available to the residents of the inner town, incompetent technical manpower, and the tedious bureaucratic process which impeded the work for indefinite period. This phase of the Project was facilitated by the newly formed Ministry of Panchayat and Local Development, which was made the responsible Ministry.

The BDP therefore, over a period of ten years of its evolution had to deal with three different ministries of the central government. The project also transformed from being a national project to a local development project, guided by the  immediate priorities of the local people. As it lost some of its luster as a national project, it was natural that some its work would be subject to political interference as well.

However, the project continued its original commitment to the preservation and restoration of the historic built environment and monuments, by installing and supporting the Monuments Maintenance Office, which still functions in the Durbar Square area. While the Bhaktapur Municipality continues the original agenda of restoration and preservation rather effectively in the various parts of the old city.[6]

BDP in Retrospect

The Bhaktapur Development Project met with success in many aspects. It put Bhaktapur back on the map as an important city of the valley. It is now part of the global tourist map, and widely perceived as a cultural center. A lot of direct investment invigorated the economy. The environmental quality of the town improved substantially. There was a big revival of pride in cultural heritage. Indeed, it could be said that BDP led to a greatly increased level of activities in heritage conservation. ‘On the job’ training of craftsmen, as well as relevant technical manpower and organizational capability development was a major achievement of the BDP. Where the BDP could not do so well was in setting an effective system for managing the future urban development of Bhaktapur, which today spreads chaotically in the surrounding fields.

It was widely perceived as high-profile elitist project, which did not consider sufficient public inputs in its earlier phases. Therefore, it is felt that project could deliver less efficiently, and certain components, like the new sewer system did not succeed as a result. As part of the project, underground drainage system was installed. Although, this improved environmental standards, it also resulted in a few problems as well.[7]

The economic impact of the project could be measured in direct and indirect ways. While the project did not carry out an economic impact analysis, the statistics compiled throw some light. The project employed 81,778 man days of carpenters/carvers, 53,802 man days of masons, and 164,330 man days of laborers. Various restoration projects also consumed 128,546 conical (Dachi-apa) traditional bricks, I.6 million traditional Ma-apa bricks, and 1.9 million local bricks, along with 23,495 cu.ft. of carved and structural woodwork[8].

The demand for traditional craftsmen/workers, and building products, thus generated, was mainly met by Bhaktapurians. The project employed the workers directly and sourced the materials directly from producers. This resulted in the direct payments rather  than through an intermediary, like a contractor. The Bhaktapur Municipality even today employs this procedure in  restoration projects, through an implementation committee. It should be noted that the demand for traditional building products and craftsmen was minimal prior to the Project.

Pools of craftsmen thus created were also organized in cooperatives, which were established to create jobs and undertake work in the future. Some of the suppliers of traditional bricks, the Awales, formed groups of their  own to start rotational type brick-kilns, which require large investments. The Project report records, that while in 1974 there was only one rotational type brick-kiln operating in the Bhaktapur area, there were over a dozen in 1985.

THE BHAKTAPUR MUNICIPALITY

The year 2046 BS (1990 AD) marks a significant benchmark in the recent political history of  Nepal. Governance by elected representatives at national and local levels, belonging to political parties of different leanings, was reinstated in the aftermath of political changes globally. In theory, local governments, including the Bhaktapur Municipality, had executive powers to manage the city prior to 1990. In practice things were rather different. Local governments lacked political will to be effective and were constantly manipulated by the Central government.

The elected municipal office bearers post-2046 in Bhaktapur have been far more assertive in their efforts to manage the various aspects of the City. All the mayors have been elected from one party, the Nepal Worker’s-Farmer’s Party. The party’s origin lie in Bhaktapur itself, and it has projected itself as the custodian of Bhaktapurian identity and self interests. It has projected itself as a transparent people oriented political force, which can deliver governance with efficiency and discipline, a rare commodity in today’s Nepal.  It is important to note that the elected ward chairmen of fifteen out of seventeen wards of Bhaktapur Municipality were from the same Party. While the other Municipalities of the Valley have suffered from constant political maneuverings orchestrated by rival mainstream national parties; and each mayor fights unsuccessfully the incumbency factor in the elections, the Bhaktapur Municipality has enjoyed a rare political stability.

The Municipality has a Town Council which meets periodically to discuss and pass budgets and other important agenda. The Council  comprises of the Mayor, the ward chairmen and the ward members, all elected. It is this political homogeneity, which allows the Municipality to implement important projects through committees formed by the Municipality directly, rather than go through a contract award process. They have mobilized public participation in the projects, thus cutting initially estimated costs considerably.

In managing the built environment, the Municipality has to coordinate mainly with two other agencies, namely the Department of Archaeology (DOA) and the Kathmandu Valley Town Development Implementation Committee (KVTDIC), an arm of Kathmandu Valley Town Development Committee. The DOA provides regulatory and technical support with regard to projects in the Historic Urban Core and the Protected Monuments Zones (under the Ancient Monuments Act of 1956), while the KVTDIC  provides technical support for planning projects outside the historic urban  core. The Municipality itself operates a Planning Section and the Heritage Section to undertake the entire range of construction works. The significant aspect is that the DOA falls under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Culture, the KVTDIC under the Ministry of Building Construction and Transport, and the Municipality under the Ministry of Local Development. Interestingly, the Bhaktapur Development Project in the course of its evolution dealt with the same three ministries, but one at  time.

Despite the new found prominence of Bhaktapur, post-BDP, it has remained largely an inclusive town, reflected in the fact that all except one of the wards geographically include within their boundaries, a piece of the old city core.[9]A large percentage of its nearly 75,000 population today is concentrated in the historic core and its periphery.

Among the various programs and projects undertaken by The Municipality in the urban management of Bhaktapur since 1990, the following three programs are discussed here:

1. Heritage Conservation

The Bhaktapur Municipality, through its Heritage Section, has successfully restored and reconstructed important temples, monuments, and other culturally significant structures. It has also restored several ponds, traditional water spouts, and other elements of the traditional urban infrastructure. The Heritage Section comprises of a team of knowledgeable and competent professionals, who have an ongoing program of documenting architectural heritage within the city and preparing conservation proposals. Projects are implemented, as and when the budget allocation is made by the Municipality. The Heritage Section has executed several important projects in the last decade, apart from smaller neighborhood structures, traditional water bodies etc. Citizen’s participation and donations is encouraged to supplement the Municipal budgetary allocations. An example is the restoration of Bhairabnath Temple in Taumadhi Square. A committee was formed by the Municipality, under the Deputy Mayor, to monitor and mobilize resources for the project. The project was implemented at a lower cost than the estimates prepared by the Heritage Section architects, using rates and specifications of the Department of Archaeology (the regulating agency in such matters). The entire process and the list of donors, as well as accounting of construction was published in “Bhaktapur”, a monthly magazine of the Bhaktapur Municipality.[10] Thus citizen’s participation and transparency has helped the Municipality directly execute such projects, without contractors, and has invariably completed projects under the initial cost estimates, something unheard of in modern Nepal.

The Heritage Section also has an on the job training program for students from the various schools of architecture, and runs regular training workshops for aspiring craftsmen to keep increasing its available pool for preservation works.

2. Tourism Management

Nine  years ago, Bhaktapur Municipality took an important step towards augmenting its income through tourism management. It introduced an entrance fee to the City for tourists arriving to spend the day in Bhaktapur. The initial tariff was Rupees Fifty, which increased to Rupees Three hundred six years ago, and Rupees Seven Hundred and Fifty in the year 2001. The Municipal budget of the last year (fiscal year 2002-3) shows that the revenue from tourism entrance fees is expected to account for nearly Rs. 71 million

(1 USD= Rs.80) out of a planned expenditure of Rs. 160 million. Although the published details of expenditure and revenues of the previous year show that revenues from Tourist entrance fees were Rs. 63 million, a substantial drop from the expected Rs. 78 million[11].

Since a substantial part of the budget is spent on heritage preservation works, the Tourist entrance fees has made substantial impact on the Municipality’s capacity to implement heritage management. While the introduction of the entrance fees initially met with disapproval from tourism operators, it has become quite acceptable now and has significantly augmented the Municipality’s capacity to be self-sustainable financially.

Despite being one of the principal tourism destinations in Nepal, Bhaktapur has remained only an excursion site for the tourists coming to the Valley. Tourists prefer to stay in hotels in Kathmandu, or in the resorts at the rim of the Valley. The number of hotel rooms is very limited in the city, and quality hotels are virtually non-existent. This has seriously denied Bhaktapur from benefiting fully from the tourism economy. Apart from entertaining proposals for construction of new hotels, it is possible to promote a program for conversion of existing traditional houses in the Historic Core to accommodate limited number of rooms for tourist stay. This will not only help in preventing reconstruction of traditional quality homes, and help in their preservation, but also be sustainable and directly beneficial to property owners. [12] One of the catalyst projects the Municipality had planned was the construction of a Convention center in the northern part of the Municipality.

3. Land Development for City Extension. The Land Pooling Projects

The Bhaktapur Municipality in cooperation with the Kathmandu Valley Town Development Project Implementation Committee decided in 1992 that an area east of Kamal Pokhari in Kamal Vinayak of Ward 4, would be the site to launch the first organized housing project, in the form of Kamal Vinayak Land Pooling Project.

Land pooling, as a strategy for organized land development for housing, has met with some success in the Kathmandu Valley. The nature of Landownership for farming in the Kathmandu Valley goes back several generations. The cadastral maps of these farmlands show a formation derived from topography, irrigation systems, cattle tracks etc. They have been shaped over centuries of farming. As these farmlands slowly get converted to urban use, the cadastral geometry has been unmanageable for efficient urban development. Land speculation, thus fuelled, has led to further fragmented development, as pockets of undeveloped farmlands persist while the city shifts further into the agricultural landscape in search of cheaper land. Acquiring large tracts of land for development is unfeasible for the Municipality, both politically as well financially. Land pooling has therefore become acceptable as a system by which agricultural landscape is reorganized to absorb a geometry of land more compatible with future urban use.

In Bhaktapur, the Municipality, fully aware of the fragmented development in the surrounding fields, launched the first of a series of land pooling projects to preempt the haphazard conversion of agricultural area east of the city to urban use, and to prevent the agricultural fields from being encroached by brick-kilns, which have already converted large areas into disfigured landscape just outside the Municipal limits.

Typically, once an area is chosen for land pooling project, a moratorium is imposed on future construction as well land transactions. All land ownership documents are collected. The new plan consisting of road network, drainage and water supply design, some open/public space allocation is prepared by urban planners. New ownership documents are prepared according to the new land geometry; and reconfigured plots of land are returned back to the original owners after deducting a percentage of their original land area for roads, open space and land retained back by the Project for future sale. The sale of this retained land at newly established market prices is meant to recover the operational and capital costs of the project.

The entire operation is overseen by a Project Management committee headed by the mayor and consisting of related administrative and technical support agencies, as well representatives of the land owners. The Project Implementation office is jointly operated by technical staff of the Municipality and the Kathmandu Valley Town Development Committee.

The first project, Kamal Vinayak Land Pooling Project, covered nearly 18 acres of land. It  was started in 1994 and completed in 1996. Similarly, the second project, Liwali Land pooling Project, was carried out in an area of nearly 83 acres. It started in 1996 and completed by 1999. The Liwali project also provided for a wider range of public spaces, like bus terminus and land for an engineering college run by the Municipality. Therefore the percentage of land area returned to the landowners was less in Liwali than in the earlier project. Prior to the project, Liwali consisted of 92% agricultural land. Subsequent to the project implementation, the owners got back 65% of land back as urban plots. [13]

Despite sound intentions by the Municipality to shape the new city in an organized manner, these projects have not taken off as expected. The shortfalls of these projects are:

·        Most of the land is still being used for farming, although the project itself reduced agricultural land considerably. They are not based on a need assessment of land supply. Thus a lot of land is taken out of agricultural use, an activity which has been the mainstay of economic and socio-cultural life of cities like Bhaktapur.

·        The houses were not built in these projects as expected, mainly because the landowners, from the eastern part of the city really did not need another house. The residents from other parts of the city were not interested to buy land and build here, as they preferred to build on their own farmlands closer their part of the city. While densification by new construction in the old city core continues with demand for space, it has put added pressure on available infrastructure services and added to the congestion. It simply was not politically feasible for the Municipality to force everybody to build in these projects, as the supply of land was restricted by previous ownership. So despite the implementation of these projects, the fragmented development around the old city has continued.

·        In the physical plan, there is no real attempt to link and refer to available sacred and cultural sites. Thus, beyond the provision of vehicular access and drainage, there is not much scope for a socio-culturally rich urban form to emerge. No specific characteristics of a urban form have been entertained either.

·        Migration into Bhaktapur is very limited as it is considered an inclusive city, where opportunities for outsiders are limited.

·        The allocation of urban spaces is merely an acceptable percentage of the area of a particular urban block. It is not based on an understanding of possibilities and necessities of such spaces for a contemporary community. The majority of public space is devoted to the roads. Arguably roads are important today for vehicular access, and infrastructure, but if neighborhood spaces are not planned and distributed to be effective, activities spill on roads itself.[14]

In the last year, however, registration for  building construction permits in Liwali has risen sharply, due to factors as diverse as the opening of Khwopa Engineering College, and the Maoist Insurgency in Nepal, which has made life in the city safer than in the surrounding villages for some. As the cities have expanded into the agricultural landscape nurtured over centuries, a host of problems emerged. These land pooling projects offer an interesting approach to remedy such problems, instill a sense of land-use control and reorganize the geometry of land for modern use without infringing radically on the individual owner’s right to the ownership of his land.

While the Bhaktapur Municipality has been relatively successful in the three programs outlined above, it is faced with problems related to issues of built form and environmental management within and around the Municipal limits.

Inadequate Building Regulations

The Municipality evaluates applications for building construction permits based on a set of rudimentary building form regulations, a few land use controls and setbacks. These building regulations essentially have height limits of 35 feet from the road for the historic urban core and 41 feet for the new developments. Exposed brickwork is mandatory and the standard setbacks are three feet from the plot boundary, if windows are located on the façade.[15] While these rules have allowed a certain control over the urban form, and allowed less room for ungainly misinterpretations, therefore simplifying the job of the regulators, oversimplification has created a host of problems as well. These set of regulations are clearly not adequate to address the problems of complex building types required today, as well as other planning problems that surface. The available regulations face the dilemma of dealing with diverse range and scale of modern building types unknown in the traditional architecture repertoire. [16]

While this lack of adequate building regulations creates a range of problems, to its credit the Municipality has implemented its limted regulations satisfactorily. This is evident in preservation of open space and agro-fields on the southern part of the municipality along the river and Ariniko Highway. The river requires a setback of 20 meters from its banks and the highway 25 meters from its center.

The municipality levies a charge of Rs.2/- per square foot of floor area of the registered building. The regions immediately outside the Municipal limits do not charge this levy, nor municipal building regulations are applicable. Since existing laws cannot prevent construction in these areas, all sorts of unchecked construction have flourished here.

Vehicular Movement

As the economy of the city grows more diverse, vehicular movement has increased dramatically, especially to move goods around efficiently. While this is not a serious problem in the newer areas and the fringe of the core city, it is becoming a major problem in the historic urban core, where the brick paving of the streets settles and cracks  rapidly. The old structures along the narrow streets also get damaged.  Vehicular movement is an essential prerequisite for various activities, therefore cannot be wished away. However, a vehicular access plan for the historic urban core is essential.

River Pollution

The River Hanumante has for centuries been the site for ritual bathing, irrigation as well as other water usages. The three Sacred Ghats for cremation are constructed along the River. However, it has become an urban gutter in recent years, severely depleting its sacred value, apart from becoming a major environmental problem. The seeds of this problem also lie in mismanaged exercises of modern development.

Covered pipe drains and sewers were installed as part of the BDP project. Two treatment plants were also installed across the river on the southern part of the city. Individual toilets in houses were encouraged for a healthy and clean environment. As the drains clogged and refuse to function, independent outlets were created in various parts of town and and discharged directly in the river. The river became a trunk sewer. Solving this problem is not only essential for regaining the sanctity of the river, but also recovering a good water source, and will need more comprehensive thinking.

Brick-Kilns & Depletion of Agricultural Fields

The Bhaktapur Municipality has forbidden the establishment of brick-kilns within the Municipal limits. But as we stand in the agricultural region at the fringe of the municipality, the onslaught of brick-kilns is an overwhelming sight. The traditional city form of the Valley and its acclaimed architecture has used the brick and terracotta repertoire extensively. The availability of clay in the Valley led to the development of brick construction into an advanced art form. Brick even today is the most widely used building material. Yet today it is also one of the significant environmental problems in the Valley. As the demand for brick has grown exponentially with the urbanization of the past few decades and land prices around principal cities have risen dramatically, the brick-kilns have grown on prime agricultural land in the fringe areas of the Valley, where land is cheap. For the traditional farmers, leasing or selling the land to brick-kiln owners is found to be more profitable than farming traditional crops. Changing socio-economics has also encouraged this.

The spread of Brick-kilns around Bhaktapur has led to massive depletion of agricultural fields, increased air pollution, massive topographical alterations leading to hydrological changes, as well as making the land useless for future use. Aesthetically, the effect is equally devastating.

The dilemna before the city is that bricks are still the common man’s building material and therefore needed today albeit in much greater quantity.  While the Kilns are eroding permanently the prime farmland, it should be noted that agriculture can be made profitable too, by modernizing and accessing new markets locally and abroad in the new globalised world.[17]

The future of Sacred Sites and Routes

The Astramatrikas, eight guardian deities, were installed around the city of Bhaktapur, during the Malla rule. Cultural historians believe that the rituals associated with these sites reveal their existence much prior to the arrival of the Mallas. It is possible to say, then, that existing sacred sites were co-opted into a new sacred framework for structuring the City. As stated earlier, the Piths of the Goddess is usually situated outside the core city on a ecologically topographically significant spot. Similarly, a host of other sacred sites, like river ghats and the ensemble of temples relating to different city clans, major ponds, gateway sites, with their ensembles of pavilions and water spouts, have been developed outside the core city over centuries. As new development spreads all around, these sites have been surrounded by commercial and residential structures, with no regard to the existence of these sites.

These sites offered significant possibilities for relating the old and  new urban forms, thereby making the new areas complement the old.  As the Mallas co-opted the earlier sites into their own vision of the city, it is entirely possible to do so today. It needs conscious and knowledgeable debate.

Local Self-Governance

The elected Municipal Governments of Bhaktapur (post-1990) have made significant achievements in the past twelve years. The Local Governance Act of 2055 (1998) further empowered Municipalities to expand its scope of decision making and activities, in principle. Successive elected mayors form the same political party have ensured continuity in implementation of programs. This enables the Bhaktapur Municipality to plan and carry out projects in various sectors of urban management. However, the complex nature of issues faced by the Municipality today demands a wider spectrum of engagement to expand its  institutional capacity, mobilize resources,  establish flexibility and deliver politically. This has sometimes been more than what  is currently acceptable to the central ministries who have been quite efficient in blocking the passage of tasks, which run contrary to their political or personal interests.
 

MANAGEMENT OF HISTORIC TOWNS IN KATHMANDU VALLEY

The management of an ancient traditional city, grappling with contradictions inherent in dynamics necessitated by modern development, is a complex enterprise. The evolution of interventions used in the past three decades in Bhaktapur, which has been presented in this paper, does compel us to contemplate future possibilities. The following possibilities presented here do not offer a comprehensive solution, but rather concepts which could be discussed to develop more effective management of such cities:

1. Integration of Traditional Knowledge of urban management.

It is generally accepted today that knowledge of the traditional built form is useful only for conservation activity in historic urban cores. Modern urban planning practice for planning new development has bypassed traditional knowledge altogether, considering it obsolete for today’s needs.  Undoubtedly traditional societies have transformed significantly due to globalization in the past decades, yet societal behavior conditioned by traditional culture have persisted and in turn determined the outcome of modern development programs.[18]

2. Use of the Principles of Traditional Urban Form.

The basic principles of traditional urban form are as valid today. Street frontages  punctuated by urban squares offer the possibilities of greater commercial frontages, besides space for a range of other usage. The traditional urban space system not only offers possibilities for social space but allows access to less privileged communities for a variety of economic use. In a seismic prone area such spatial relationship also offer safety. With extremely high cost for use of transmitted electricity in Nepal, even today access to sunlight accounts for significant energy consumption. Urban design proposals should demonstrate these possibilities. Urban form should evolve from being merely infrastructure centric to Space centric.

3. Planning Public Space with Evolving Communities.

Legal and technical instruments along with competent human resource should be put in place to develop the range of open spaces required by a community as it evolves. Spaces thus planned not only should optimize on available land, play host to a range of socio-economic possibilities, but also facilitate the evolution of a contemporary urban culture sympathetic towards the values of the earlier one.

4. Resource Mobilization for Land Pooling Projects:

If the land pooling projects are to lend greater value to the urban management of Bhaktapur, resource mobilization by the municipality is essential to direct demand for new housing and construction to these projects is. This will require greater upfront investment in physical and social infrastructure services, access to housing finance. Resource mobilization is needed to direct both new growth as well as prevent unmanageable densification of the historic urban core. Such mobilization has to be backed by clear legal status for land-use and development controls, and competent technical support staff.

5. Conservation of Traditional Socio-economic Base.

The culture of the city is inextricably linked to the range of economic activities that have sustained it. Changing economy today makes these activities unattractive. Programs need to be developed that make these traditional activities profitable, efficient, and sustainable today. Inputs of modern design, technology, finance and access to new markets have to be used. Zoning for the preservation of agricultural land is essential to restore the degradation of the landscape around the city. It is also possible to argue that agriculture today in parts of the Valley can be as profitable as real estate, given the access to regional and international markets for high value agriculture products today. Several examples in Nepal now illustrate that agriculture can be highly profitable.

6. Institutional Capacity and Skills:

Institutions regulating the development of the city are generally perceived as a necessary evil by the general public. Such institutions need to be seen as educators, facilitators and sensitive to people’s needs, to be able to instill confidence in the public. This requires a different approach and training in bridging the communication gap, and developing rules of engagement.

The repertoire of traditional architecture does not provide all the solutions needed today. There is very little effort to explore expansion of traditional architectural language to accommodate the diverse specialized spatial requirements of  contemporary building types. Innovations in design, based on genuine knowledge of tradional built-form, is required.

As urbanization spreads into the hinterland, the source of traditional building materials depletes dramatically, and the scale of construction activity surges, traditional building materials and techniques are going to be increasingly substituted by industrial products and modern techniques. The appropriate application of these to complement the traditional language is a major challenge to designers and builders.

7. Sacred Sites and Rituals in the New City.

Various Sacred sites and rituals routes, spread in the periphery of the Historic urban core and the surrounding landscape, offer the possibilities for creating strong references for new plans. To place such sites in a precise context though, debate among cultural historians and planners needs to be initiated.

Sound environmental and ecological management principles were put in place in the traditional cities and towns of the Kathmandu valley, for over a millennia. Their continued practice and evolution was ensured by cultural events and rituals. Today, Bhaktapur is the setting for innumerable rituals, followed religiously, although their original significance has eroded.  Rituals, even today, can be an effective mass communication medium for environmental management.

8. Comprehensive Land-use Plan.

While the city managers are acutely aware of the significance of heritage preservation, new development is largely dealt with as a series of damage control exercises. A fresh vision of the City needs to evolve, which sets out a clear agenda for the future development of Bhaktapur. A comprehensive land-use plan, which  fosters such vision, needs to be developed. Such plan should be developed,  using available instruments of land development control, knowledge and demands of the city, integration of traditional systems with modern practice and knowledge.

Bibliography:

·        BHAKTAPUR (Monthly); Vol. 1 and Vol. 9, Published by Bhaktapur Municipality, 1999 and 2002.

·        Gutscow, N. and Bernard Kolver: “Ordered Space Concepts and Functions In a Town of Nepal. Bhaktapur”, Nepal Research Center Publications, Kommissionverlag Franz Steiner GMBH, Wiesbaden/BRD. 1975

·        Hutt, Michael et al.: “NEPAL: A guide to the art and architecture of the Kathmandu Valley”, Paul Strachan, Kiscadale Publication, UK, 1994.

·        Parajuli, Yogeshwar K.. with Drs. Saphalya Amatya and K. Struchbecker.: ‘Bhaktapur Development Project; Experiences in the Preservation and Restoration of a Medieval Town (1974-85)”, Publisher: BDP and GTZ., Kathmandu, Nepal. 1986.

·        Project Summary Description; Liwali Landpooling Project, Bhaktapur. Developed by Kathmandu Valley Town Development Implementation Committee, Bhaktapur and Bhaktapur Municipality. Kathmandu Valley Town Development Committee, Ministry of Works and Physical Planning, His Majesty’s Government of Nepal. 2002

·        Slusser, Mary S.: “NEPAL MANDALA”, Vol. 1 and 2, Princeton University Press, Mandal Book Point, Kathmandu. 1998.

·        Tiwari, S.R. : “No Future for an Urban Past”, Himal, Vol.5, No.1., Himal Association, Nepal. 1992.

·        Tiwari, S.R.: “Kathmandu Valley Urban capital region and Historical Urbanism”, URBANE, Vol. 1, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal. 2000.

·        Tiwari, S.R.: “The Town of Bhaktapur- a Review of structural changes over time”, CARD Newsletter, Center for Applied Research and Development, Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University. Nepal. Aug. 1998.