Architecture in Nepal

Art and architecture overlap in Nepal, where temples and palaces are decorated with intricately carved windows, sculptural roof struts, and repoussé metalwork facades. The red brick and dark hardwood construction of densely packed neighborhoods has led many Western visitors to compare the cities of the Kathmandu Valley to medieval European cities. This architectural style is characteristic of the Newars, the ethnic group that has traditionally lived in the Kathmandu Valley. Newari architecture is Nepal's most distinctive architectural style. The rosy glow of pink brick homes dotting the terraced fields of the Kathmandu Valley at sunset is one of the valley's most memorable images, especially when seen from a plane.

Newari architecture reached its zenith under the Malla kings in the 17th and 18th centuries, and it is from this period that most of the Kathmandu Valley's most important buildings date. Since palace architecture was based on standard home styles, with one or more courtyards, it was in temple architecture that Newari architects experimented. Temple architecture in Nepal embraces a number of styles, though the most notable and beautiful is the pagoda style. Nepali tradition holds that pagoda architecture originated in Nepal. The style was later copied in Lhasa, Tibet, from where it made its way to China. Pagodas in Nepal have between one and five roofs, though there are only three pagodas in the Kathmandu Valley with five roofs. The Nyatapola Temple in Bhaktapur, a five-roofed temple atop a five-tiered pyramid base, is considered the most beautiful, symmetric, and graceful temple in Nepal. The Basantapur tower, within the Hanuman Dhoka Palace on Kathmandu's Durbar Square, is the only pagoda that can be climbed, and in fact not all pagodas have floors that correspond to their many roofs.

Most pagodas and buildings are constructed from brick, which, until recently, was the most common building material in the middle elevations of Nepal. However, a few temples are built in the shikhara style of architecture from northern India. These temples are usually plastered and whitewashed or made of stone. The Mahaboudha Temple in Patan is the most ornate shikhara-style temple in the Kathmandu Valley.

Two of Nepal's most important architectural constructions are the stupas of Swayambunath and Boudhanath. Stupas are large hemispherical mounds that represent the Buddha and his teachings. In some ways they resemble the pyramids of Egypt or pre-Columbian America, though they have never been used as tombs. Smaller stupas credited to Indian emperor Ashoka stand at the four corners of Patan. Chaityas, much smaller than stupas, are small spire-shaped shrines often found in courtyards in Buddhist neighborhoods of the Kathmandu Valley. Chortens, which are found in the Buddhist villages of the high mountains, are similar to chaityas, though they are usually a bit larger and are erected not in courtyards but at important religious sites.

Over the centuries, major earthquakes have repeatedly hit the Kathmandu Valley. In 1934, a devastating quake razed most of the temples and palaces in the valley. Since then, most, but not all, of the valley's damaged historic buildings have been reconstructed. However, the reconstruction did not always exactly duplicate the original architecture, as is the case with the Mahaboudha Temple in Patan. When reconstruction of this temple was completed, there were enough of the original bricks left over to build another small temple immediately adjacent to the main temple. The Bhaktapur Development Project, a German-funded program, has restored more than 100 buildings in Bhaktapur, making this city a showcase of Newari architecture. In Panauti, a small town in the southeast corner of the Kathmandu Valley, a joint French-Nepali project has been busy restoring an extensive temple complex.

Though Newari architecture predominates in the Kathmandu Valley, styles vary outside the valley. In the lowlands of the Terai, the Tharu people build their huts almost exclusively with grasses, using a mixture of mud and cow dung to seal the walls. In the high elevations of Solu-Khumbu, home of the Sherpas, most homes are built of stone; even the roofs are made of slate. This ethnologic architectural diversity is one of the reasons that a trek through the hills and mountains of Nepal is so fascinating.

A footnote worth mention is the construction of dozens of European-style neoclassical palaces and residences in Kathmandu during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Examples include the Gaddi Baithak on Kathmandu's Durbar Square, the Shanker Hotel, the old wing of the Hotel Yak Yeti, the recently restored Baber Mahal Revisited shopping center, the minaret-like Bhimsen Tower near the Kathmandu General Post Office, and even the Kathmandu Guest House. These buildings were constructed during the Rana regime when members of the Rana family traveled to Europe and became infatuated with what they saw. Nepal's coffers were emptied to erect these stuccoed, pilastered, and shuttered excesses, and today these buildings are nearly as interesting as the more traditional Newari temples and palaces.