Replenishment for Tripureshwor Mahadev Temple in Kathmandu: An Ancient Spatial Vision

March 4, 2017

As April approaches, the rebuilding of shaken and broken monuments in Kathmandu (as elsewhere in Nepal) begins to gather momentum, even if just in our own pre-occupied cerebral worlds. The Tripureshwor Mahadev Temple is a hidden gem. At a cross-roads of faith and fortitude, of ancient practice and modern paradigm shifts, the Temple has borne the burden of the Great earthquake with a sublimated awareness. Of course, buildings crashing during an earthquake can kill. Earthquakes, per se, rarely do.

A few days back, the rays of the late afternoon sun positioned a sublime perspective around the Temple — to ideals of renewal, re-connection and revival. The scaffolds around the Temple, now evident at almost every corner, give it an air of heightened existential prescience. The view from the Temple entrance is a summary indication and insight into both the theory and practice of deistic structural beliefs and values.

We often wonder how far back in time (and space) our temples date back. This challenge, in and of itself, could be a worthy hypothesis and thesis on which to reconstruct a new spatial dialectic for Kathmandu’s eroded sense of place, aided and abetted by hindsight as we often tend to be. The Temple is awash with plans and planned designs. So must the rest of Kathmandu be.