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INTRODUCTION TO KATHMANDU VALLEY HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, CULTURE

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 INTRODUCTION TO
KATHMANDU VALLEY
HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, CULTURE AND RELIGION

Apekshya Dhungel
18/12/2017
Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1
Historical identity....................................................................................................................... 1
Geographical Features ............................................................................................................... 4
Demographic Features ............................................................................................................... 5
Built up of Kathmandu valley .................................................................................................... 6
Historical and modern ............................................................................................................ 6
Historical formation of the cities ........................................................................................... 8
Present Scenario ................................................................................................................... 15
References ................................................................................................................................ 17
Introduction

Kathmandu valley comprises of the three major cities: Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur.
Kathmandu is the capital city of Nepal. Kathmandu city is a converging point for the nation’s
population also in the past, which can be observed from its rich cultural heritage. Patan
(Lalitpur) city is 14 km east of Kathmandu city, and shares significance in its history and
culture as Kathmandu. Bhaktapur city is about 20 km east of Kathmandu city, which is also
known as ‘city of devotees’ and referred as the ‘living heritage’ of the valley. (Bhaktapur.com,
2015)

The valley is enriched with most of the Nepal’s ethnic groups, but the Newars are the
indigenous inhabitants (UNESCO, 2015). It is the political, commercial and cultural centre for
Nepal which showcases a rich culture, art and tradition, especially that of the Newari
Settlement. (UNESCO, 2015) (Pant & Funo, 2007)

Nepal’s urban space includes one metropolitan city, four sub metropolitan cities, and 53
municipalities. KMC, the capital city is the largest urban settlement and holds 22 percent of
the country’s urban population. Rapid urbanisation has transformed the Valley into a
metropolitan region: an urban system concentrated in the city core surrounded by suburban
areas and satellite cities and towns. It comprises of 21 municipalities and 8 village development
committees. These altogether form a highly integrated economic system. (Muzzini & Aparicio,
2013)

Historical identity

The three major cities of the valley (Figure 1) have served as the capital of Nepal in different
period of history. The inhabitants are a number of different ethno-linguistic communities, of
which the Newar who live in the town settlements are considered responsible for the valley’s
cultural development since the ancient times and these settlements have common features
which distinguish them as the Newari settlements.

The uniqueness of the valley’s towns’ architecture and settlement patterns can be observed
through the formation of individual dwellings, organisation of the neighbourhood and urban
squares as well as the community spaces and buildings. This pattern is considered to be unique
even within the cultural zones of South Asia. (Pant & Funo, 2007)

1
Figure 1. Three ancient cities of Kathmandu valley along with other towns. (As referred from Hosken,
1974 by Chitrakar, Baker, & Guaralda, 2014)

Kathmandu valley with its ancient culture dates back to more than 2000 years to the pre-historic
Kirat period as mentioned in City Profile of Kathmandu (As referred by Thapa, Murayama, &
Ale, 2008 from Shrestha et al., 1986). The valley was a lake (which has been confirmed by
geological research) and it was drained out by a Chinese saint, Manjushree. He cut through the
ridge of Chobar which lies on the south of Kathmandu valley and made all the water drain out
then made the valley available for habitation (As referred by Thapa, Murayama, & Ale, 2008
from Ranjitkar, 1983).

The different era of settlement, historic and prehistoric, according to chronicles and historical
evidence area is shown below in Table 1.

Table 1. The different era of settlement in Kathmandu valley (Referred by Thapa, Murayama, & Ale,
2008 as seen from sources below in table).

Settlement Period Settlers Source of data Mentioned in

Swoyambhu 900 – 700 BC Gopalbansi Ranjitkar & Chronicles
and Manandhar, 1981
Gujeswori Shrestha et al., 1983
700 – 625 BC Mahispal Regmi, 1999 Chronicles
625 – 100 AD Kirats Regmi, 1999 Chronicles
100 – 1000 AD Lichhavis Historical Evidence

2
 Note 1: An Indo-Tibet trade route was opened in the Lichhavi era in the 7th century. By the end of the 10th
century, the town was called as Kantipur. (Shah, 2003)
Kathmandu 1257 – 1768 AD Mallas Shah, 2003 Historical Evidence
valley
Note 2: Jayasthiti Malla (1380-1395) was the most popular king during this period, who was known as a great
reformer, politician and judicious administrator. The expanded town had been divided into three kingdoms:
Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur by the end of 18 th century. This era has presented the city with
extraordinary attainment of architecture, urban planning, arts and crafts, infrastructures and development of
institutions (socio-cultural) for urban management. Today, we can see the urban elements in the major cities as
well as satellite cities. (Thapa, Murayama, & Ale, 2008)
Kathmandu 1768 AD – Shah Shah, 2003 Historical Evidence
valley
Note 3: Prithvi Narayan Shah, then king of Gorkha, the three cities in 1768 AD and declared Kathmandu as
the capital of unified Nepal. (Shah, 2003)
Kathmandu 1846 – 1950 AD Rana Shah, 2003 Historical Evidence
valley Hack & Rafter, 2003
Note 4: In 1846 AD, Jung Bahadur Kunwar founded the Rana regime. During this period, the suburbanization
of Kathmandu started to take place because the Rana built palaces in major agricultural land in the city
periphery and the other settlements started growing around it because of the basic infrastructure facilities. This
resulted also in the encroachment of productive agricultural land of the valley. A democratic movement ended
the Rana regime in 1950 AD. By this time, the agricultural landscape was converted tragically since 1960s into
an urban form extending across the valley and enforced by the migration into the valley and the expansion of
vehicular access. From lake into the lake bed to paddy agricultural field into today’s urban society of concrete
jungle.(Shah, 2003, Hack and Rafter, 2006)
Kathmandu 1950 – 2007 AD Democracy (Chitrakar, Baker, & Historical evidence
valley under His Guaralda, 2014)
Majesty’s
Government
Note 5: After the end of Rana regime, Nepal saw democracy under the governance of His Majesty’s
government. This kingdom of Nepal also had to come to an end. From 1996 to 2006, Nepal faced civil war
between the government forces and the insurgence of the communist party of Nepal (Maoist). In 2008 AD, the
interim parliament passed a bill and declared Nepal to become the federal democratic republic of Nepal without
a king.
2007 – Now Federal (Chitrakar, Baker, & Historical evidence
Democratic Guaralda, 2014)
Republic of
Nepal

Nonetheless, the profound historical identity of the city has a great variety of cultural heritage
sites including the palaces, monuments, religious sites (temples and shrines), as well as ancient
settlements, urban elements in the form of historic ponds, taps and public wells. (Thapa,
Murayama, & Ale, 2008)

Kathmandu valley is enriched with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO) world heritage sites. These come under the category of cultural
heritage and are shown by seven groups of monuments and buildings which showcase the

3
historic, religious and artistic achievements of the Valley: the three Durbar (Palace) Squares,
Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur; the Buddhist stupas of Swayambhu and Bauddhanath; and
the Hindu temples of Pashupatinath and Changu Narayan. (UNESCO, 2015)

Geographical Features

Nepal is characterized by multidimensional topography, geology and climate with diverse land
uses and livelihood patterns. With 77 % of land area being mountains and hilly, it is known as
the Himalayan region of the world, 23% of the area is flat, called Terai (Shukla, Timilsina, &
Jha, 2012). The lowest elevation of the country therefore is above 64m from the sea level and
the highest elevation being the highest peak in the world Mount Everest which is 8848m above
sea level. This high range of difference is within the span of 200 km from terai to mountain
region (Shukla, Timilsina and Jha, 2012). As discussed earlier that Kathmandu Valley was lake
located in the lesser Himalayan zone. The sandy gravel and gravel soil including lacustrine soil
is found in this area. It is mainly formed by the deposited materials in the lake thus has a fertile
land (Shukla, Timilsina and Jha, 2012).

Figure 2. Kathmandu Valley three dimensional map (source: Thapa and Murayama 2009)

The Kathmandu Valley is situated in the northeast of Nepal, at an average height of 1350 metres
above sea level. Bagmati River flows through the Kathmandu Valley and it is the most
significant sacred river for the city (Weiler, 2009). The valley’s location is the main reason for
its economic and cultural development as it served for hundreds of years as a gathering place
for the traders. As referred from Slusser (1982) by Weiler (2009) the valley became a centre
for cultural exchange as is was a point of intersection of trans-Himalayan trade routes.

4
Demographic Features

The valley flat area is densely populated, with more than 6,000 persons/km2. The population
density is lower at greater distance from the city core, these are the area at higher elevation and
are composed mostly of villages (officially known as village development committee or VDC).
The fringes adjacent to urban areas have faced rapid population growth. Recent population of
the Kathmandu valley can be seen in Table 2 below.

Table 2. Population of the Kathmandu valley as per the national census of 2011. (KVDA, 2015)

Type of Area Hectare Population Density per hectare

Urban Area 9669 1426641 148
Kathmandu Metropolitan City 4945 975453 197
Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan City 1515 220802 146
Bhaktapur Municipality 656 81748 125
Kirtipur Municipality 1476 65602 44
Madhyapur Thimi Municipality 1076 83036 77
Urbanizing VDCs 18850 706202 37
Kathmandu 11750 507969 43
Lalitpur 3766 122043 32
Bhaktapur 3335 76190 23
Rural VDCs 43662 296436 7
Kathmandu 23190 150265 6
Lalitpur 13263 88441 7
Bhaktapur 7209 57730 8

According to the Census 2011, the growth trend can be seen as such:
Annual growth rate of population in Nepal: 1.35%
Annual growth rate of population in the Kathmandu Valley: 4.63%
Maximum growth rate observed in Urbanizing VDCs of Kathmandu Valley: 5.7%
The phenomenon of population increase in the valley can be seen in Figure 3 below. From last
two decades it can be seen that there has been a drastic change in the population of the valley.

5
 Figure 3. Growth of population in Kathmandu Valley since last two decades. (Muzzini & Aparicio,
2013)

It can be seen that the population growth within the valley is comparatively high with the
overall population growth rate of the nation. Moreover, the growth rate is even higher in the
Urbanising Village Development Committee which are the fringes of the urban area. This trend
shows that the urbanisation of the Kathmandu valley is increasing at a high speed. The
population growth rate that shows extra elevation is therefore not due to birth rate but it is due
to migration. The challenges and opportunities of Kathmandu have attracted people from
different parts of the country, almost 32% of the population is migrants from other parts of the
country (Thapa, 2009). The city core area is very expensive so the rural population have started
moving into the periphery of the valley where they get equal opportunity but the expenses are
less (KVDA, 2015).

Built up of Kathmandu valley

Historical and modern

The towns of Kathmandu Valley have traditionally been built as compact settlements that
encouraged walking and the use of public open space. However, in the recent years, rapid and

6
unplanned growth has led to huge urban sprawl with limited public open space (Clean Air
Network Nepal, 2013). As already shown in demographic data, the growth rate in the Valley
especially in the urban fringes is very high.

A city which dates back to prehistoric era and most of its physical form relying greatly on the
Newar civilisation, from past to the modern, and the spaces also as such that they create greater
chances for social and cultural activities, street only accessible by foot or chariots during
festivals (Weiler, 2009) (Pant & Funo, 2007). Most of the lanes of the cities are served as
footpaths. The lanes are lined with multi-storeyed houses, the houses along these lane serve the
common walls. Dark passages then lead to courtyards of the clusters of houses. The public
space is widely used for individual purposes, such as visiting temples, playground for children
or as a workplace. (Weiler, 2009). The cities of Patan (Lalitpur) and Bhaktapur still show this
pattern (Pant & Funo, 2007). The old boundaries of Patan has extended to the new metropolitan
area of the Kathmandu with its expansion. But its distinct characteristics in terms of both social
and physical features separates it from the surrounding new developments.

Figure 4. A typical Cluster in Patan: Bubahal Cluster. (Pant & Funo, 2007)

The arrangement of dense cluster of dwellings around the courtyards in the old city still exist
and these can be identified with a traditional occupation. The modification can be seen in the
recent days with the forms of buildings specifically the replacement of traditional tiled roofs
with flat concrete roofs. Nonetheless, the physical fabric of the city remains enact. Even though
after the development of the modern times, the number of major lanes has neither been added
or subtracted (Pant & Funo, 2007). As seen in the study of Thimi, a peri-urban area of KMC,
and Patan some internal lanes might have been added in the existing space due to the
construction of new dwellings or even some access lane might have been blocked (Pant & Funo,
2007).

According to Adhikari (2012) moreover the streets and squares in the city core are encroached
due to informal occupancy of vendors and other commercial purposes. Tiwari (2001) said that
the heritage activities in Kathmandu city have only been limited to the conservation of

7
monuments. The spatial aspects of the city such as town level heritage, community spaces,
cultural routes, streets, squares as reflected in the built spaces have never been address (Tiwari,
2001).

Though this is not the case for many of the traditional settlements in the periphery where the
overall structure of the old settlements is still retained. They are also in the process of
transformation, but they have kept the tradition of open spaces within the built form, street
pattern and large open spaces at the peripheral areas. In case of Bungamati, an ancient
settlement located 10 km south of the capital city Kathmandu, they have still kept the inner
streets for vehicle movement either 2-3 m wide in brick pavement and 1.5-2.5 m with stone
pavement which creates sense of enclosure with the building height not exceeding 6.5-8.5 m
lining continuously on both sides. And they are still using the open spaces (streets, courtyards)
incorporated within the built form for activities such as utensil and clothes washing, grain
drying, working place, sunbathing etc. which promotes social interaction among neighbours
and the community as a whole. (Shrestha & Shrestha)

A new kind of settlement is developing in the suburban area of the city which is encroaching
the historical fabric of the city. The new townhouses around the periphery and some high class
residence (gated communities) have been developed throughout the valley but the basic
necessity such as power supply, proper sanitation and drinking water has not been sufficient
for the rate of urbanisation. (As referred from Thapa and Murayama, 2009 by Vaidya, 2011)

Commercialised housing projects are also introduced in the recent decades, however 90 percent
of the houses are still built in informally following the traditional practice of owner-built
housing development (As referred from B. K. Shrestha, 2010 by Chitrakar, Baker, & Guaralda,
2014). These unplanned neighbourhoods have no open spaces consideration. Even in the
planned neighbourhood including the gated communities the open space amenities are not
satisfactory. The amount of open spaces ranges from 2.5 to 5 percent of total developed area
without basic amenities which makes them unfriendly and insufficient to fulfil the need of the
residents. (Chitrakar, Baker, & Guaralda, 2014)

In context of Kathmandu, it has been following the Buddhist and Hindu religious traditions
from the ancient time to the modern time and the towns of Kathmandu valley are the symbols
of Newar civilisation (Pant & Funo, 2007). The Newars still live in a space embed with cosmic
qualities throughout the complex system of the physical spaces of the valley, for example, the
city, streets, squares, nodes, houses and the edges (Weiler, 2009).

Historical formation of the cities

As already explained above, the traditional settlements of the Kathmandu Valley dates back to
pre-historic era. The three palaces in the three main cities, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Lalitpur,
the squares and temples around them and the settlements surrounding them gives the valley its

8
identity. Traditional architecture and urban design showcase the historical and geographical
factors that formed the native culture. (Shrestha, 1981)

Figure 5. The three Durbar (Palace) Squares of the Valley. From left: Basantapur (Kathmandu), Patan
(Lalitpur) and Bhaktapur. (Thapa, Murayama, & Ale, 2008)

The traditional open space were embedded within the urban fabric of the ancient settlements.
They were distributed throughout the city in various forms. The housing and settlement patterns
in the Kathmandu Valley evolved during the past 2000 years. These patterns can be observed
in the traditional Newari settlements. In the process of evolution, however, they adopted many
ideas and skills from their neighbouring countries. Nonetheless, their own unique skills were
incorporated into the detailing such as carving of religious figures, in temples and doors and
windows of the houses.

Figure 6. Ancient settlements of Kathmandu Valley: 1-Kathmandu; 2-Bhaktapur; 3-Patan (Lalitpur).

9
Moreover, the arrangement of the houses, temples, streets and
open spaces maintained a remarkable balance within the
settlement. Different spatial characteristics also emerged in the
Valley’s settlement pattern as non-Newar settlements became
dispersed but these settlements did not reflect the cultural and
architectural achievements of earlier periods. As Fran Hosken
says “The towns, villages and houses of the Kathmandu Valley
built by the Newars are among the most beautiful indigenous
settlements in the world. The mastery of urban design and space
and the fine craftsmanship of the sophisticated buildings and
monuments reveal an artistic imagination and a social
Figure 7. A traditional Newari
understanding that are not only rare but are also limited to the Settlement at town periphery
Kathmandu Valley and the Newar people.” (Shrestha, 1981) (Bungamati). (Shrestha &
Shrestha)
Houses are clustered along the streets or around the courtyards. All the neighbourhood have
community squares with public amenities. According to Chitrakar (2006), these elements of
urban forms give both functional and aesthetic purposes such as the temples, Pati (public rest
house), water well and Dhungedhara (stone water spouts), Stupa and Chaitya (Buddhist
shrines) and Dabali (an elevated platform). After the entrance gate of the city, the city has
clusters of housing with their neighbourhood squares and towards the centre, there is a large
open space known as square which has a palace. These are also similar to the neighbourhood
squares, the difference being that they are bigger is size and have dominating features like
temples and other artefacts. The open courtyards within the dwellings also have various size.
Some of them accommodate around 100 dwellings, some only a few dwellings. (Pant & Funo,
2007)

The central area of Newar settlements were the open spaces in the form of squares and all the
major routes converged here (Figure 8, left). The secondary roads and narrow alleys passed
through compact buildings and these settlements also had smaller open spaces in the form of
quadrangles. These squares if they had the Buddhist shrines in them were called bahas and the
ones without shrines were called nani or chukka (Figure 8, right). The quadrangles or the
courtyards were responsible for the social interaction through daily activities such as drying
rice in summer, worshipping and as they were enclosed by buildings they became safe place to
play for the children. The visual response to settlement design and the scale and arrangement
of open spaces was remarkable, this created a natural platform for social interaction. For
example, the temples and monuments were raised in multiple plinths (as shown in Figure 9)
and therefore were much higher than the houses. This made the temples visible from distance
and also the ground served the purpose of selling farm goods or just the purpose of sitting in
the sun. The Ghats (cremation sites) were located at the outside of settlements near river banks.
For the Newars, a house and a settlement are not only their place of residence but also sacred

10
places where social and spiritual functions are performed. Most of the settlements have a direct
association with a temple of a tutelary deity and each of them had their own festivals connected
to the local deity along with the general Newar festivals. Some festivals include relics of ancient
practices that existed even before the organised religions were introduced. (Shrestha, 1981)

Figure 8. A typical Newari settlement on the left (Shrestha M. N., 1981). A typical plan of a Bahal on
the right (Chusya Bahal in Patan). (Pant & Funo, 2007)

Figure 9. A typical section of a temple with raised platform. (Shrestha M. N., 1981)

During the late Malla period (as already noted in the introduction part in table 1), with the
increasing Hindu influence, people were stratified according to occupation castes irrespective
of their religion. Different parts of the city, mainly blocks known as tols were often noted for
their socio-economic characteristics due to the majority of one caste. People with high social
status lived mostly around the centre of the city, where the palaces were, while the poor people
11
with lower castes resided in the outer limits. Though the people in the higher caste were in
minority, they controlled the settlement’s central region. Today, the spatial distinction and
economic specializations are not maintained in strict form but the names of the blocks still
remain as a legacy. (Shrestha, 1981)

Kathmandu’s now city land was historically a highly productive agricultural land. The major
crops are still grown in the city fringes. A large variety of vegetables are grown throughout the
year in the periphery of the city and they provide fresh products to the city dwellers (Thapa,
Murayama, & Ale, 2008). As the houses were clustered in rows and around courtyards, to
facilitate the extended families within common social spaces and that could conserve the land
for agriculture (Referred from Pokharel, 1987 by Vaidya, 2011). Now these cultivable lands
are mostly turning into building plots.

Figure 10. Agriculture land in the valley; peripheral fringe (left); change in land use from 2003 (right
top) to 2015 (right bottom).

In Figure 10, it can be seen that from 2003 to 2015, a lot of agricultural land has been converted
into building plots. The expansion is in the form of planned and unplanned settlement growth.

Table 3 below shows how the Open Spaces were used for variety of functions in the past and
how they were able to form a social agglomeration based on the details as explained above.

Table 3. Open spaces and their historical function.

Types of Open spaces Functions

Small Chowks (courtyards) Playgrounds for children
surrounded by dwellings Drying clothes, grains
Fetching water
Bahal (Buddhist courtyards with Social interaction, worshipping, safe play area for children
shrines)

12
 Nani (Buddhist courtyards without Social interaction, safe play area for children
shrines)
Main chowk (large square mostly Events
near palace or infornt of palace) Announcements
Important functions: city hall, law court, police station, post
office
Streets Also for daily activities, bathing kids, drying grains (during
harvesting season)
Also used for commercial activities (in recent years)
Procession routes for chariots during festivals
Connectivity
Khet (agricultural field) Agriculture, farming
Ghats (river bank) Cremation areas for Hindus
Worshipping God

The main open spaces are shown in the table above with their respective functions. Further, the
elements of these open spaces and their function can be seen in Table 4 below.

Table 4. Elements of Open Spaces and their functions

Elements of Open Spaces In which Open space Functions

Patis (covered area) Along the street, along the Communal building/public
houses shelter for Games, music,
gossip
Instruction and business
Resting space

Hiti (public fountain sunk in the Along the street For fetching water
ground)
Garden wall, Pond or tank for Along the street, in smaller Relaxation and beauty
water supply squares Fetching water
Dabali (elevated platform) In the large squares Cultural programs
Sattal (rest houses) For resting, chatting
Stone spout, water well In the courtyards, large For fetching water
squares
Lachhi (Squares) Artistic work – pottery, carpet
weaving, painting

Visual appearance of the urban open space elements in the Kathmandu valley can be seen in
the images below. The use of these elements can be seen today also in many parts of the city
but in some places they are less valued and not taken care of, as can be seen in the Figure 11.

13
 Dabali Pati

-neighbourhood courtyard with temple

Social milieu with the

traditional open spaces
-streets for walking and
and their elements
selling things

-large square with temples with high plinths

Dhungedhara Narrow streets Temple

Figure 11. The elements of Historic Open Spaces and their functions.

14
Present Scenario
As already mentioned, the social structure and daily life of people is still existing in the
traditional settlement of the old cities. These patterns are mostly seen in the squares (temple,
palace) and smaller residential courtyards. But the streets which were used like networks for
interaction of societies and exhibition of public life have now become simplified tools for
transportation, thus losing the value of social life (Rai). Streets that were once used for
pedestrian and chariots are now congested and polluted with vehicular movement and also
pedestrians in chaotic manner. This is seen in one of the main public square Indrachowk. The
square and streets are encroached with informal sector (according to Adhikari (2012), in the
urban context the informal sector refers to small enterprises selling food and goods or offering
services and thereby involving the cash economy and market transactions) vendors and
unmanageable traffic. As unmanaged and chaotic the street vendors seem, they are important
part of informal economy. KMC however has the right to clear off these activities and people
would have more space for leisure and recreation, but these spaces however are managed by
the local groups (Guthi: a traditional group formed to take care of the community, youth groups,
and religious groups) with informal activities (Singh & Keitsch, 2014).

Due to the trend of urbanisation in the city core there has been loss of spatial relation linkages
and accessibility that existed between the buildings, monuments and spaces in the old times.
To understand the spatial transformation a townscape analysis had been done to access the
change in terms of legibility, permeability and visual analysis of the traditional urban fabric
(Moughtin, Cuesta, Sarris, & Signoretta, 1999). It was observed that traditional spaces are
undergoing inappropriate and incompatible modern activities. The Dabalis which were used in
historic time for cultural programs are now used for selling various goods. Some of the market
squares from the past are still fulfilling the same function but the encroachment is due to some
vendors who remain illegally and cause disturbance and pollution. In terms of permeability,
the traditional urban spaces were highly accessible and circulation pattern followed the squares,
streets, courtyards and the houses on the ground floor. Now a days, access to these spaces has
been blocked due to security reasons by the house owners. The existing bye laws suggests the
mass and height of buildings must be compatible with existing historic buildings and
surroundings. This can be seen in terms of appearance of the buildings but the height limit is
not followed. The increase in height and the change in the styles of the buildings are another
cause of decreased value of the space thus reducing the liveability of spaces (Rai).

According to Tiwari (2001), the issues that are threats to spatial values of the city are as follows:

o Commercialization is the threat to traditional urban fabric, as it causes drastic changes

in land uses, functional and cultural values.
o Modern society is less sensitive and enthusiastic to heritage value.

15
 o Low level of awareness leads to deteriorating situations of cultural infrastructures, such
as loss of ambient visual environment, traditional open space accompanied by other
physical environmental problems.
o Lack of research and inventory on intangible heritage leads to the loss of originality
during reconstruction/conservation works.
o Lack of coordination in plans, programs and responsibilities among public authorities,
government departments and stakeholders, which results in outputs that are ineffective,
lacking long term and holistic approach.

Kathmandu Metropolitan City, the largest area of the Kathmandu valley comprises of only 6
percent open space with per capita organised open space of 0.97 sq. m. Land development in
the valley is taking place mostly in an informal manner. “It is carried out mostly by the private
land brokers who subdivide and sell land into small single family parcels to maximize the total
private value only, sacrificing common service as trade off” (As referred from Adhikari, 1998
by Chitrakar, Baker, & Guaralda, 2014).

Though commercial housing are introduced lately, 90 percent of the houses are built informally
by the owner. These unplanned neighbourhoods have neither proper infrastructure nor open
spaces consideration. The amount of open spaces ranges from 2.5 to 5 percent of total
developed area without basic amenities which makes them unfriendly and insufficient to fulfil
the need of the residents. (Chitrakar, Baker, & Guaralda, 2014)

As the city core cannot provide settlement for the growing population, the expansion takes in
the form of congestion within the city in a peripheral land. The open space that existed and
provided the residents with food gardens, grasslands are gone in many places and they are
overtaken by new urban spaces such as bus park, shopping centres, squatter settlements, new
planned and unplanned residential colonies and industrial buildings. However there are few
existing parks and public spaces within and at the periphery, they are not prioritized for
maintenance and are immensely overused by the urban population who is in desperate need for
such spaces for recreation and greenery (Zurick & Rose, 2009).

Chitrakar, Baker and Guaralda (2014) evaluated the traditional public spaces, taking three case
study areas, in three dimensions: provision, use and meaning and the current trend of open
spaces in the new neighbourhood is compared using these parameters. These are the key issues
on changes of the above mentioned factors:

o Public spaces have been compromised in both planned and unplanned new
neighbourhoods in terms of their quantity and quality.
o Public spaces are developed as open ‘plot’ without integrating them into the built mass.

16
 o There is lack of design elements/features in public spaces to make them inviting and
user friendly.
o In absence of public spaces/buildings, local shops, café and other similar privately
owned venues are being increasingly used for social gathering.
o New social uses are emerging to replace traditional culture and religion based activities.
o Disappearance of element of urban interest makes new public spaces less usable.
o Less occurrence of festivals and social events have led to less use of public spaces.
o Less optional and social activities are taking place due to inappropriate provision of
public spaces.
o While people see the significance of public space, its improper provision and declining
use does not contribute to developing a positive meaning.

This trend is however seen in the city core and the dense planned and unplanned new
settlements however the traditional settlements in the city periphery still exhibit the same social
and cultural agglomeration with the public open spaces. Hence, it becomes very important to
integrate these forms into the new settlements which are part of expansion of these ancient
settlements. The city core is facing the most adverse effect in the current situation. To protect
these spaces and to protect the built form of the city is vital for the preservation of historical
and religious values of the valley.

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