"Namaste! Atithi devo vaba!! Welcome to Patan Durbar Square-one of the world heritage sites of Nepal. Here you can see Patan Durbar (Patan Palace) constructed by King Siddhi Narsingha Malla, while just in front of the palace you can see Krishna Mandir (Krishna Temple) constructed with stone with story of Mahabharat beautifully carved on it." Any one visiting Patan Durbar Square would be given such brief introduction about this world class heritage site. Tour guides would describe the dates, facts and figures of this world class heritage but very few would go beyond these monuments and understand the culture and inter linkage between these heritages, its history and people. Knowledge walk in Patan Durbar square organized by Power shift Nepal on 17 May, 2014 attempted to explore this heritage site beyond what normally a tourist or anyone visiting this site would see and further in course of walk power shifters explored inter relation between these heritages and people.

Is heritage site just a building or temple or monuments that stand on land or are there other intangible monuments that in due course of time one has been following but not acknowledging? Isn?t intelligence and practise of our ancestor-their capital our heritage? For me answer is definitely yes. "A well planned Patan city existed before America was discovered and now we are trying to learn the urban management practices from America. It is really shameful that we have not valued our ancestors toil and the civilization that they left for us," shared Saurav Dhakal-a fabulous story teller and our guide for the day.

Starting to walk from Patan Dhoka- one of the entrance gates in the historic period gave us the picture of planning that kingdom of Malla period adapted in protecting their country. Constructed for the protection of the kingdom along setting the boundary of palace, the gate worked perfectly to hold the attack of enemies as the structure of the gate was so designed that only an elephant (war tanks of that time) could enter at a time. Meanwhile the city also exhibited distinct urban settlement and land use pattern with the proper understanding of sustainability. While the settlement area was located in high lands, agricultural land extended beyond the city area in the plain areas unlike mushrooming of houses in fertile lands at present. In quest of development and urbanization we are forgetting lessons that our civilization taught us and rocketing ourselves in destroying our future.

The urban design of the old city was dominated by courtyard system that served the multiple needs of the inhabitants. These provided vital open spaces within the compact settlements where cultural and religious activities that dominated the social life of the people were performed. In addition they also provided space for economic activities and recreation.

Along houses, the urban design also balanced the life support system-water via stone spouts, ponds and dug wells. Having the proper understanding of the environmental inter connection and the processes, these ponds, dug wells and stone spouts were perfectly placed so that water supply is ensured throughout the city. Some of the stone spouts are continuously flowing for ages and still serving water to this thirsty Kathmandu. Also, it is interesting that the ponds that we normally see in the deep land are located in the high hills of old cities, these not only helped in ground water recharge for water supply but also became a recreational area and reliable source of water supply during disaster.

But, the tragedy is we have easily inherited the building and these ponds, stone spouts and dug wells but turned an eye upon the inter-linkages between these, which ensured their sustainability. Now we are protecting the infrastructure but not their function, we are protecting our heritage but it will be an expensive deal if we can?t conserve it. For instance floor of Pimbahal Pokhari near Gabahal has been paved with bricks, disallowing proper infiltration of water. Though the beauty of pond has been regained its contribution in recharging water in lower belt has been checked resulting in less water at lower belt, we protected the pond but not its function.

The historic urban design not only supported the socio economic condition of the time but also ensured sustainability of the cities. But the time has changed, we are living in one of the most chaotic and unsustainable cities, had we understood and adapted the principle of systematic urban planning exhibited by our ancestors we should not have come to this crossroad of civilization where we are looking into western knowledge on developing sustainable cities though we have our home grown ideas.

Observing the current urban pattern we could conclude the only heritage that we could inherit was the palaces, temples, ponds, dug wells and stone spouts but not the inter-linkages among them, which is very vital if we want our existing heritages to be enlisted in world heritage sites for ages.

Exploring Patan Durbar square beyond what normally a guide shows was an eye opener, now we are actually relating ourselves to our heritages and convinced heritages are beyond tangible monuments, if we all can relate it to ourselves may be we will be living in more systematic cities in coming years.

Please find the related articles in my personal blog

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