Resonating Influence: Hanuman Dhoka in Relief
February 12, 2017
“Museums are ideally placed to share this vision. No longer mere temples of erudite scholarship and keepers of artefacts, they play a vital role in education, social cohesion and sustainable development by stimulating intellectual exchange and creativity and as symbols of identity.” — UNESCO
Hanuman Dhoka is among Kathmandu’s earliest and best-known cultural memory and landmark. Bustling with visitors and pilgrims of all persuasions, the Square can be likened to an ancient, medieval and modern art installation. Period art, of course, is so happening! Boasting all of Kathmandu’s socio-religious, genealogical and architectural definitions, Hanuman Dhoka Durbar Square is also a pavilion of ideas and ingenuity. The Palace Museum at the heart of the Square was the royal courthouse of the erstwhile Shah monarchs. It is immediate in identity and approach — a Gorkhali durbar, spatially replete, of architectural contributions to Nepal’s reigning ideologies. The Square takes more than just one visit to be fully understood.
“Urban resilience is often place-based. The shocks and stresses experienced by a city can vary depending on its social, economic and environmental circumstances (Mehmood, 2016). Understanding the various degrees of vulnerability within cities — population groups that have differing skills, housing and socioeconomic statuses — plays an important role in making a city more resilient. Determining the specific threats to resilience in a given context and therefore what it would mean to make it resilient helps in managing the issues and enabling collective understanding and collaborative action.” — Open Data For Development
The Shastra in Nepal has found particular interpretation as has the Square and the dhoka (door) needs no explanation certainly. Much of Nepal’s early built environments, spatial ideals and design cultures evoke a visceral sense of creativity, connection, energy and absoluteness. Oftentimes, change in Nepal is a context, a pretext, a pretense and a resonating tremor. The underlying and bedrock assumptions of change in Kathmandu have been wrought through the nation’s governing presentiments, parchments and palisades. Politics too is a meandering, measured and undeniable presence. The Great Earthquake of April 2015 has transmuted into an ebb and flow of eventfulness in 2017. Predominantly visible remnants and recovery instruments are the tewa and scaffolds that support important structured and fortified paradigms as well as definitive civilizational expressions.
“When museums are threatened for their role in protecting and valorizing precious witnesses of the past and human creativity, it is their intrinsic value for intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding that we must protect and support.” — UNESCO
