Himalaya, the Journal of the

Association for Nepal and

Himalayan Studies
Volume 17
Article 11
Number 1 Himalayan Research Bulletin

1997

Book review of 'Kirtipur: An Urban Community in

Nepal' by Mehrdad and Natalie H. Shokoohy (eds)
Bruce McCoy Owens
Wheaton College

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Recommended Citation
Owens, Bruce McCoy (1997) "Book review of 'Kirtipur: An Urban Community in Nepal' by Mehrdad and Natalie H. Shokoohy
(eds)," Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies: Vol. 17: No. 1, Article 11.
Available at: http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol17/iss1/11

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Book Reviews

Todd Lewis serves as editor of the book review section of the HRB. As in other areas of the journal, we are depending
upon members to participate in the process: contact the editor if you wish to suggest a title or to sign on to review a
specific publication. And please remember to have your press forward a copy of your book to the bulletin. ·
Todd T. Lewis, Department of Religious Studies
Box 139-A College of the Holy Cross
Worcester, Massachusetts 01610
508-793-3436 [Office] 508-793-3030 [Fax]

Kirtipur: An Urban Community in Nepal - its people, town planning, architecture, and arts.
Edited by Mehrdad and Natalie H. Shokoohy. London: Araxus Books. Pp. 258. Case Bound.

This book is the fruit of the collaborative efforts of policy development," "History," "The Newars, the
architects (Mehrdad Shokoohy, Chris Miers, Marc people of Kirti pur," "Social life and festivals,"
Barani, and Ramendra Raj Sharma), an architectural "Urban=46abric," "The Newari house," "Traditional
historian (Natalie Honoria Shokoohy), a professor of houses of Kirtipur, their types and the building
architecture (Sudarshan Raj Tiwari), an engineer (Robin materials," "Water supply and sanitation," and "Art and
Lall Chitrakar), a geographer (Uttam Sagar Shrestha), antiquities," and receive treatments that range in length
an archaeologist (Sukra Sagar Shrestha), and Nepalese from two to fifty large, double-column pages of text.
Government Ministry officials (Shanker M. Pradhan, Some chapters include references with full citations and
Padam Chhetri, and Gauri Nath Rimal), many of whom bibliographies, others do not. It is understandable that
have also functioned as conservationists and city the first of two volumes cannot include the conservation
planners in other contexts. The research team includes recommendations promised in the second, but this
both residents of Kirtipur and researchers from abroad. volume is difficult to review as a whole because much
Primarily based on a survey conducted in 1986 (2), this of it consists of data that has not been worked into an
collected volume is intended to be a background study overview or thesis. Many chapters do not include
upon which a "Master Plan" for the conservation of conclusions, leaving the reader to draw them for herself.
Kirtipur, currently in production, will be based. The The structure of the volume under review therefore
project directors are to be lauded for the multiplicity of compels me to consider each chapter briefly.
disciplines from which these experts were drawn and the
Mehrdad Shokoohy's introduction usefully situates
inclusion of residents of Kirtipur among them. The
potential for international and multidisciplinary efforts the present work in the context of Nepal's planning
efforts and earlier studies of Kirtipur that were designed
of this kind, though clearly indicated in this work, is
only partially realized, however. to develop long-term planning and conservation
strategies. Gauri Nath Rimal's chapter on "Private and
The volume is lavishly illustrated with black and public involvement in conservation policy
white photographs, a major asset that is somewhat development" follows this introduction, and
diminished in some chapters by low contrast printing. appropriately begins with a description of the guthi
The nineteen chapters of the book are eclectic in system that for so long created and preserved most of
conceptualization and diverse in style. Chapter topics the structures throughout the Kathmandu Valley that are
include "Private and public involvement in conservation in need of preservation today. It is unfortunate that Mr.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS 65
Rimal did not further explore the causes of the decline Shokoohy is on firmer ground in his overview of
of the guthi system in Kirtipur, which he chalks up the history of Kirtipur, though problematic terms such
chiefly to "the influence of European ideas of progress" as "the Brahmanical period" and "the Buddhist period"
(9), for it is essentially this complex network of are used without explication or justification (13).
relationships between people, shrines, and voluntary Kirtipur is presented as a city of distinction and
organizations that must somehow be replaced. If land importance in its own right, yet mired in the inter-city
reform and the reworking of obligations between politics of the valley. Reproductions of mid-nineteenth
cultivator and owner are indeed consequences of "the drawings by Oldfield effectively remind us here that the
influence of European ideas," Rimal's point is well problems of restoration and conservation are by no
taken, but surely the gaps left by the decline of the means new to the Kathmandu Valley, so often ravaged
guthi system need to be more fully understood as social by earthquakes.
and historical phenomena in order to recommend
sustainable conservation initiatives. Sukar Sagar Shrestha's chapter on "Social Life and
Festivals" is quite useful yet disappointingly brief,
Though Mehrdad Shokoohy is to be congratulated as offering a sketch of the public cycle of ritual events to
an editor for coordinating the efforts of diverse local and which other chapters refer as playing important roles in
foreign experts, his own chapter, "The Newars, the defining the urban space of Kirtipur. In a few pages,
people of Kirtipur," might have itself benefited from Shrestha includes references to events that surely merit,
more such collaboration. To attempt to cover this topic yet do not receive elaboration. A dispute over rights to
in a mere four pages of text would be a daunting task use a cremation site, the use of banks to secure assets
for the most knowledgeable of Newarologists, but there and generate income for guthis, and the demise of the
is a great deal of literature to which the writer Dvare jatra ("headman" or "mayor festival") in 1984 are
apparently did not have access, and from which he all mentioned in passing. Each of these developments
would have benefited, including the encyclopedic work concerns a transformation in the administration and use
of Mary Slusser, the numerous important works of of Kirtipur as a site of religious practice and public
Gellner, Quigley, Ishii, and Locke, and the voluminous festivity, and as such would seem to be of potentially
monograph by Levy, to name just a few readily great interest to anyone planning to help preserve more
available general works. Though I am sure that an than monuments.
oversight is responsible for Chattopadhyay's
In the next chapter, entitled "Urban Fabric," Mehrdad
problematic 1923 article being noted as a "recent study,"
Shokoohy establishes three important respects in which
(27) 1, and though some of the vital work of Toffin,
Kirtipur is exceptional among the ancient cities of the
Hofer, Gutschow and Kolver of much more recent Kathmandu valley; the extraordinary degree to which it
vintage is cited, several glaring errors mar this general was effectively fortified, its "citadel" configuration, and
introductory chapter. the bifurcation of the city into what appear to be
The important issue of caste is muddled, to say the Buddhist and Hindu sectors. Here he also conveys a
least: castes are confused with varnas (24-25); the use of good sense of what a tot-oriented town is like. This is
the term "caste" rather than jat is never explained or also one of many situations in this volume in which
justified; and the statement is made that "the caste glosses for Newari place names would have been useful,
system has now been legally abolished in Nepal" (24) as tol names often convey a great deal about how
(only discrimination is explicitly illegal), to point to residents conceptualize the spaces to which these names
just a few problematic points. Certainly many Newars refer.
would be surprised to learn that Newari "does not appear The next three chapters by Ramenda Raj Sharma,
in printed form except rarely in scholarly reports," (21) Chris Miers, and Marc Barani concern Newar dwellings.
especially the thousands of readers of the several Newari Each mentions historical shifts in the use of domestic
newspapers. One's confidence is also shaken by seeing space, ways in wtJ.ich people transform their homes
Wright's chronicle consistently referred to as "the through division and expansion to accommodate new
Parbatiya," (as it is in the chapters written by both familial configurations, and the various impacts the use
Mehrdad and Natalie Shokoohy), Parbatiya being the of new building materials has had on residential
language in which manuscript translated for Wright was architecture. Barani's contribution stresses the symbolic
originally written and not the name of the manuscript attributes of domestic architecture, and points to the
itself. ways in which caste defines not only the demography of
neighborhoods, but their physical layout as well,
cautioning planners to remember that space both within
and between homes is defined according to religious
1 All Nepali and Newari words are spelled in the manner parameters. Sharma's chapter sets out a chronological
used in the book under review. For the sake of typology of "traditional" Kirtipur dwellings, and most
simplicity, and as no ambiguity is entailed in their interestingly points to a gradual transformation of the
omission, diacritic marks are not included in this ground floor from a shelter for animals and latrine pit to
review, though they are present in the book itself. a space fit for human habitation. Miers's work provides

66 HIMALAYAN RESEARCH BULLETIN XVII (1) 1997

another account of how space within the dwelling is Natalie Honoria Shokoohy's chapter on "Buddhist
used, but also provides a fairly detailed account of Monasteries" paints a picture of serious decline; many
construction materials and techniques used of the bahas being maintained, it would appear, by only
"traditionally" and now. He also briefly addresses the one family. This is not entirely clear owing to the
critical problem of reconciling the cultural peculiar way in which the term sangha is used in some
preservationists' goals of retaining "traditional" instances to refer to a single person rather than a
architectural style and "authentic" building techniques community of initiates, as in "The sangha and his
and materials, with home owners' desires to live in a family constitute a guthi, or kinship organization."
home that is more comfortable than the one in which (131). Guthis are not necessarily "kinship
she was raised, if not one that is prestigious by virtue organizations," as this sentence would imply, and I have
of beirig conspicuously modern. A more detailed never heard a Newar refer to him or herself as a sangha,
consideration of this critical problem would have been even if he or she were the only surviving member.
welcome, as would ethnographic documentation of the Most of this chapter is a kind of architectural inventory,
decision- making processes that have led Kirtipur's documenting the current state of preservation of
residents to alter old buildings and design new ones to Kirtipur's bahas and bahis and the histories of their
take the forms that Miers briefly describes. transformations that took place as a consequence of
previous restorations and alterations prompted by
Sukra Sagar Shrestha's contributions to this volume
domestic housing needs. Some of her descriptions
are the most extensive, comprising nearly half of its
include useful accounts of how the resources used to
pages. His chapters entitled "Historic Public maintain these structures have declined over the past
Buildings," "Art and Antiquities," and his appendices on
four decades.
the inscriptions of Kirtipur also constitute some of the
volume's most significant contributions. Collectively, The next three chapters deal with land use. Padam
these chapters constitute a kind of material culture B. Chhetri's extremely brief chapter on the "Kathmandu
inventory of Kirtipur, including its most significant Valley Land Use Plan and Kirtipur" touches upon what
individual architectural and artistic treasures. The must be two of the most important problems facing
extensive chapter on public buildings provides brief but conservation efforts: local interpretations of national
rigorous architectural and iconographic descriptions of regulations and initiatives, and the problems of
the principal religious shrines and resthouses of enforcing such regulations, particularly building codes
Kirtipur, but excludes treatments of the bahas and bah is and land use restrictions. Shanker M. Pradhan's brief
("monasteries"), which are treated in a separate chapter chapter, entitled "Land Use and Population Survey,"
by another author. Shrestha also provides a brief provides useful maps of tols and panchayat political
history of each building, including an accounting of the divisions that pertain to issues discussed elsewhere in
restorations that have shaped their current forms. His the volume, and deals primarily with the consequences
chapter on "Art and Antiquities" describes many works of increased engagement in wage labor and commuting
that are no longer to be found in Kirtipur, having been on the part of Kirtipur's residents. One difficulty in
moved to the National Museum in Bhaktapur, and his interpreting the data presented is that land use data are
appendices provide much of the historical data, in the from 1988, whereas household income source data are
form of inscriptions, upon which his historical accounts from six years earlier. Uttam Sagar Shrestha's chapter
are based. on "Land Use Changes in Kirtipur" is the most detailed
of the three, and directly addresses many of the effects of
Sudarshan Raj Tiwari's chapter on the "Tiered
the mandatory 1957 sale of much of Kirtipur's
Temples of Kirtipur" deals primarily with two of the
agricultural land to His Majesty's Government for the
most conspicuous temples of Kirtipur, those devoted to
purpose of building the campus of Tribhuvan
Uma Mahesvara and Bagh Bhairav. Much of this brief
University and the Horticultural Research station. The
chapter demonstrates how proportions laid out_ in
agricultural bases for the financial resources of many
mandala format can be used to identify transformations
guthis charged with maintaining the structures described
that temples have probably undergone through processes
in this volume were lost in this transaction, in which
of restoration. In one speculative aside about the Bagh
Kirtipur as a whole lost a third of its cultivated land.
Bhairav temple, the author notes that it attracts a
This would appear to be another respect in which
"congregational pattern of worship" (130), an
Kirtipur is unique among the ancient conurbations in
observation that begs for elaboration and opens up an
the valley, and might have well received attention in a
issue that should be of importance for this project but
separate chapter that would have delineated the impact of
which receives little attention in this volume: how are
this land alienation and suggested ways in which issues
these religious sites actually used? Many forms of -
of restoration and cultural preservation might be
ritual devotion involve processes of accretion and wear
different for Kirtipur as a consequence of this dramatic
that are conceivably at odds wit];l some goals of
change forty years ago.
preservation;transformation is intrinsic to many forms
of worship. Any conservation plan would surely Robin Lall Chitrakar's chapter, entitled "Water
benefit from a careful consideration of how and when Supply and Sanitation," engages this extremely
and why these sites are used, in what ways. important topic primarily by revisiting 1982 and 1985

RECENT PUBLICATIONS 67
studies on the results of the well-known project to there are strangely absent from this volume. Though
install low cost latrines that was initiated in 1976. all of the authors profess and display sensitivity to
Chitrakar carefully considers cultural factors in his Kirtipur as a place in which humans live and which
analysis of impediments to providing sanitation and humans continuously transform, we hear little about the
clean water, and points to complex ways in which the aspirations of Kirtipurians for their own town, or their
alienation of land in 1957 had various implications for sense of what it means to live in Kirtipur, or the ways
traditional management of waste. Though Chitrakar in which they might feel the changes documented in
does his own analysis of water needs for the future, this volume have affected what Kirtipur is for them. A
some of his projections are based on 1983 data, which great deal of effort has been made in this volume to
surely could have been updated. It would also have been infer patterns of past activity and cultural significance
very useful to include a recent study of the long-term from neglected buildings and worn images, and to
impact of the low-cost latrine project to which many document the architectural transformations that have
have looked as a model. been wrought by natural, socio-economic, and political
forces. I would hope that as much effort would be
Mehrdad Shokoohy's chapter on tourism provides expended to learn what those now living in Kirtipur
interesting (if somewhat dated) data on tourism in themselves think about the place in which they live and
Kirtipur (from 1987), and attempts to assess the what might be done to both improve and protect it. I
advantages and disadvantages of developing what seems also hope that it will not be construed as disciplinary
to be a little-utilized potential resource for revenue. chauvinism to suggest that this project (and others like
Here relevant lessons could be learned from Patan, it) would benefit from the input of an anthropologist or
which has only recently begun to develop tourist two, many of whom have been trained just outside
facilities in its historic center. Bhaktapur also provides Kirtipur's crumbling walls.
valuable lessons with respect to the costs and benefits
of making provision for tourists in conservation Bruce McCoy Owens
schemes, but larger lessons can be learned from this Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology
project as well. Apart from the contributions of experts Wheaton College
who are residents of Kirtipur, voices of those who live

Neue Forschungen im Himalaya. Edited by Ulrich Schweinfurth. Erdkundliches Wissen Vol. 112.
Franz Steiner-Verlag: Stuttgart. 1993. Pp. 293.
Nepal und die Himalaya-Region. Edited by Martin Gaenszle und Dietrich Schmidt-Vogt. Beitrage
zur Si.idasien-Forschung Vol. 166. Franz Steiner-Verlag: Stuttgart. 1995. Pp. 163.

Review reprinted with permission from Mountain complicated as the Himalayan system 11 (p. 27). G.
Research and Development, V. 16:4. Miehe's 'Plant Geography and Climatic Research' is
based on fieldwork in 1986 in the Langtang/ Helambu
Area of Central Nepal. His interpretation of plant life
These two volumes bring together recent research in forms (especially epiphytes) and their distribution
the Himalaya by German scholars. The papers were results in the following climatic classification: 1) lower
originally presented during seminars organized by the cloud forest (2,000-2,500 m); 2) middle cloud forest
South Asia Institute of the University of Heidelberg in (2,500-3,000 m); 3) upper cloud forest from 3,000 m to
1989/90 and 1993. the upper timberline (-3,900 m). Both its
methodological approach and results (including 14
Neue Forschungen im Himalaya assembles a informative maps) mean that the paper i;i a scientific
wide range of geographical and ethnological advance in the plant geography of the region. J.
information, and should be read and used by everyone Martens' 'Soil dwelling Arthropods in the Central
who is interested in Himalayan geography and Himalayas' seems rather specific, but is very
ethnology. Most of the papers fall into one of two informative. He regards the Himalayan fauna as an
categories: biogeographic phenomena, and immigration fauna. Migration and isolation were the
socioeconomic (especially cultural) change and main factors for speciation in numerous neo-endemics
development. U. Schweinfurth's 'Vegetation and confined to small areas and extreme mountain ecotopes.
Himalayan Research' contains very general information Arthropods are found in the Himalayas up to nearly
based on his 1957 vegetation map. It serves as an 6,000 m. Low temperature, drought, wind, and lack of
introduction, following Schweinfurth's statement that food supplies are the limiting factors for their existence
the "study of the vegetation is basic to understand a at extreme altitude.
country and in particular a mountain region as

68 HIMALAYAN RESEARCH BULLETIN XVII (1) 1997