Nepali palace restored with China aid

KATHMANDU－Despite facing challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, the restoration project for the quake-hit nine-story Basantapur Palace complex in Nepal has been completed with Chinese aid after nearly five years of hard work.

The Chinese government and experts have been able to construct the monument to its original authenticity, integrity as well as its outstanding universal value, said Damodar Gautam, director-general of Nepal's Department of Archaeology, on Friday.

The complex, which lies in the heart of Kathmandu Durbar Square－a world cultural heritage site in the Nepali capital, was badly damaged in massive earthquakes in 2015.

The top three floors of Basantapur Palace situated in the southwest corner of the complex had totally collapsed, while part of the tower in the northeast corner collapsed as well. Some 80 percent of the complex walls suffered varying degrees of deformation and cracking, with over 10,000 wooden components damaged and scattered.

In the aftermath of the quakes, both the Chinese government and Nepali government agreed to work on a restoration project for the complex and the project started in August 2017.

The Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage, which has been involved in the restoration project, said recovering the complex post-quake was pressing, challenging, risky and difficult for the team, as damaged parts of the complex would suffer less loss if the project could move ahead as quickly as possible.

In addition, part of the complex that remained open to visitors has challenged the team to ensure the safety of both tourists and the project.

Gautam noted that the Chinese experts always consulted with the Nepali side on how to preserve the complex's traditional value, design and authenticity so that "the outstanding universal values of the world heritage site could be maintained".

"They are very cautious about maintaining the authenticity, integrity and values of the world heritage site," he added.

For chief engineer Zhou Jianguo and his team, they had insufficient historical references to work with from the very beginning, especially the collapsed parts. They had to visit veteran craftsmen and collect old photos in effort to restore the historical value of the complex.

The team moved to reinforce the structures by means of a so-called reversible soft connection, which enabled them to achieve minimal disturbance but preserve the complex's original value as best as they could. This has led to the Chinese team achieving a patent for this innovative technology in China.

Nepali sculptor Manhari Maharjan felt "fortunate" to work with the Chinese team.

"We could learn a lot from the Chinese team as they identified the carvings of designs that we had not seen earlier," he said.

Xinhua