Patan’s historic temple is not just being rebuilt, but restored to its pre-1934 look
When an 8.3 magnitude earthquake struck Kathmandu Valley on 15 January 1934, killing more than 10,000 people, among the destroyed structures was the 17th-century Bhaidega temple in Patan. The three-tier pagoda temple was quickly rebuilt, but in the Moghul stucco dome style.
Eighty-one years later, the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust (KVPT), with support from the Norwegian Embassy, had just started restoring Bhaidega in its original tri-pyramid design when the 25 April 2015 earthquake hit. Four temples nearby went down. Reconstruction of temples that were destroyed in both 1934 and 2015 are now simultaneously nearing completion in Patan, drawing attention to how damage from the two earthquakes often overlap in Kathmandu Valley.
“There was so much destruction here in 1934 that many of temples were quickly rebuilt in the Moghul style, but finally Bhaidega is being restored to its original glory,” says Rohit Ranjitkar of KVPT.
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