Preserving Cultural Heritage
For Urban Regeneration

By Khilendra Basnyat

CULTURAL heritage links us with our history and helps in facing the future. Hence, the acts for the preservation of cultural heritage has been gaining ground in many countries in recent times.

Preservation and promotion of traditional or folk performing arts have been a major concern in Nepal since time immemorial. The Nepalese people have had their own variety of tradition, religious and folk cultural heritages.

The religious harmony and tolerance between relions have not only been a vital force behind the continuity of cultural traditions in the country but also helped to evolve a unique cultural mosaic. The Lichhavi rulers and the Malla rulers continued this age-old tradition of patronising the art and culture of the country.

After the unification of the country by King Prithvi Narayan Shah the Great, much efforts were undertaken for preserving cultural heritage. Other Shah Kings also continued to preserve traditional cultural heritage.

However, during the Rana regime from 1846 to 1951, the Rana prime ministers neither encouraged nor discouraged traditional cultural heritage. They were indifferent to the protection and development of art and culture. Consequently, some of our pristine cultural tradition vanished or deteriorated.

After the advent of democracy in Nepal in 1951, some new institution were set up to look various aspects of traditional Nepalese culture, including the Royal Nepal Academy, Tribhuvan University, Department of Archeology, Nepal Association of Fine Arts, Nepal Art Council, National Archives, Sanskritik Sansthan (Cultural Undertakings. They are playing their own significant roles in preserving and promoting traditional and folk performing arts.

After the restoration of democracy in our country in 1990, a new scenario has emerged. In 1991, the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture (MOYSAC) was established. The aim was to formulate and implement policies, plans and programmes regarding culture. It is also responsible for the preservation and promotion of folk or traditional cultural heritages.

On cultural matters, MOYSAC and the Ministry of Comunication (MOC) are the two main policy and decision-making bodies in the government. Nepal Television, Radio Nepal and other media are working under MOC.

After 1990, under the new free and liberal environment, some non-governmental organisations aiming at restoration, revival, research and promotion of cultural heritage have come into existence. A few such organisations are indirectly helping the preservation and promotion of traditional performing arts. They also introduce
foreign elements in their performance to make them more attractive as well as profitable.

Home to various tribes, communities and social groups adhering to different religions, observing varied social customs and nurtured in diverse cultural traditions, Nepal is a treasure trove to traditional folk perfoming arts such as music, song and dance.

Although the traditional or folk performing art in urban areas is moving towards commercialisation, it is still continuing in rural areas as a major recreational activity of the people.

In reality, Nepalese art and culture have survived throughout under the love, care and devotion of both the rulers and the people.

Despite the fact that the caste system in the Nepalese society has some shortcomings, it has played a significant role in preserving and promoting traditional arts in the country.

Being an agriculture-based society, most of the traditional or folk performing arts of Nepal are influenced by the farming class of people. They are the backbone and forerunners of the traditional culture of the country. Actually, they are the chief architecs and actors. They have been maintaining their traditional occupation, preserving folk art and culture. However, during festivals, everybody participates in singing and dancing. It has been a community affair since time immemorial.

MOYSAC organises folk performing art competition every year in different districts of our country. It helps cultural organisations, groups and individuals for the preservation and promotion of traditional or folk performing arts.

Temples, which are a precious heritage of Nepal, are also national property. They have the potential of attracting Hindu pilgrims and tourists as well. Therefore, Nepal’s temples are important culturally, religiously, and artistically.

The temple sites in Kathmandu valley are specially famous for the landscape they offer. One can see the sprawling valley on one glance. Apart from this, the mountain peaks, hill ranges and forests also can be viewed from these sites.

The government has sought the assistance of some donor agencies in order to secure the tourist potential of cultural sites located in the tourist centres.

UNESCO has assisted Nepal in preserving and promoting some of our unique cultural heritage, which are part of the world heritage.

The Nepal-German Bhaktapur Project has played a vital role in the historical preservation of Bhaktapur’s temple centres resulting in its status as a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.

During the 1980s, the Pacific Area Travel Association supported some additional historical preservation projects in order to counter the threats of neglect, air pollution, theft and new construction.

Likewise, the government of Austria has assisted in the preservation of art and culture in Lalitpur.

No doubt, Nepal’s heritage runs as a powerful force through every aspects of daily life. However, the values and social structures, which have developed this heritage, are being influenced by destructive processes, both from within and outside the society.

Our cultural heritage will only be effectively conserved if the people comprehend its value. The motivation for conservation comes from the community itself.

Although cultural heritage preservation has been used by many cities around the world as an effective means of urban renewal and revitalisation, it has never been used as effective planning for urban regeneration. In fact, for urban regeneration renovated historical monuments can increase the attractiveness of a place and help project image as tourist site.

Past Keeps Tripping Up The Future

By Barry Renfrew

TEN years ago the world seemed radiant with optimism and confidence. The Cold War was over. The Gulf War had ended in what looked like a stunning triumph of American military might. Peace was breaking out across the globe. Humanity finally seemed to be turning its back on war and conflict.

The future offered a gleaming vista of peace and prosperity, of a global village united by trade, modern technology and peaceful resolution of disputes. War was out of date. E-mails would replace bullets.

A decade later, much of the hope and optimism is shattered. Wars and rebellions that have lasted for decades, even centuries, show no sign of ending despite the efforts of armies of diplomats and peacekeepers. The Middle East, Kashmir, Northern Ireland, the Balkans - the bloody, baffling list seems unending.

The United States, which would seem far too powerful for any rational nation to attack, faces a bewildering global fight against terrorists motivated by historic grudges. President George W. Bush, whose father saw out the Cold War, now sees the West arrayed against a new "axis of evil" consisting of Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

To many people, especially in the West, the state of the world makes no sense. The past keeps tripping up the future. Old wars and old hatreds seem insoluble and unending even though many of the fighters can’t explain very clearly what they are fighting for. As the power of religion and ideology has declined in the West, it has become harder for many Westerners to grasp how seriously it is taken by societies elsewhere.

Henry Ford, founder of the automobile company, spoke for many, then and now, when he said in 1916, "History is more or less bunk."

Europe was being ripped apart by World War I and millions had been killed. America was determined not to be dragged into the Old World’s madness, but within months it was fighting in a war that began in the Balkans in 1914. By century’s end, the Balkans would be burning again, and American forces would be bombing Slobodan Milosevic’s Serbia.

To Ford, the past was dark and dismal. All that counted was building a better future, and it seemed to be emerging as effortlessly as the Model T cars that flowed off the conveyor belts’ of his factories.

James Joyce saw it very differently. "History is a nightmare from which I am trying to wake," the great author wrote.

Then, as now, his native Ireland was being torn by a conflict stretching back to the Middle Ages.

Time and again, humanity has believed it stood on the brink of a great new future, an era of peace, prosperity and progress. Time and again, the past seems to have reached out to wreck that hope.

There was nothing new about the optimism 10 years ago at the end of the Cold War. In 1900, the Western world thought it was entering a new era of science, peace and progress. Instead, the 20th century was the bloodiest epoch in Western history.

Optimism tinged the dawn of the 1800s, when visionaries believed science and the spirit of the American and French revolutions would transform life, but that century, too, was torn by war and suffering.

History is often positive, with people taking pride in their ancestors and drawing on it to unite a country, shaping national character and identity.

Most Americans celebrate the American Revolution and the end of the Civil War, just as the French remember their revolution of 1789 with an annual parade.

But why do so many people focus on the negative, fighting old battles and old wars? Why not forget the past and build something better?

Because, historians say, the present is only the product of the past and no one can cut themselves off from history.

Or as Abraham Lincoln said in the depths of the Civil War, "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history."

Conflict can last for centuries because some ancient battle has become a vital part of a nation’s identity - especially when the losing side is still living in poverty while the victors prosper.

Modern Serbs are haunted by defeat at the Battle of Kosovo Field in 1389, believing it deprived their nation of its destiny. Lines drawn on the map of Africa by European colonialists dividing up the continent in the 19th century cause conflict in the 21st century because those pencil strokes forced together rival ethnic and sectarian groups. Some Afghans refer to Westerners as "Franks," a reference to the European Crusaders of the Middle Ages, even though the Crusades never came within 1,600 kilometres of Afghanistan.

History is divided into periods to make it easier to study. But the division of time into segments like the Middle Ages or the 19th century misleadingly suggests history has neat beginnings and ends. It doesn’t.

Osama bin Laden, a product of modern tensions in the Middle East, can also be seen as part of a historic clash between Western and Eastern civilisation dating back to the ancient Greeks in the 6th century BC Bin Laden brands the West as Crusaders to try to invoke historic resentment by evoking wars that ended more than 700 years ago.

The end of the Cold War, instead of ushering in peace, saw the re-emergence of much older conflicts that had been put on hold or covered up by the global struggle between East and West.

In the former Soviet Union, centuries-old struggles between rival ethnic and sectarian groups flared; Yugoslavia became a killing field of ancient national and sectarian conflicts; Afghanistan, already shattered by a Cold War proxy battle between the Soviets and the West, sank back into the historic struggle among ethnic groups and meddling neighbours.

The modern struggle between India and Pakistan is shaped by the lines drawn on the map by Britain when it divided its Indian empire into Hindu and Muslim states in 1947. The two nations have clashed ever since, trying to change those lines. But the conflict can be taken further back, to the Muslim invasions of India and the clash of long-forgotten kingdoms.

When the 19th century novelist George Eliot wrote, "The happiest nations have no history," she knew there was no such thing.

Western civilisation has been profoundly influenced by a belief in progress. "It was scarcely possible ... to conceive of historical change except as change for the better," wrote the English historian E.H. Carr.

But the idea of history as progress often creates a blinkered view and makes it hard to understand the importance of the past.

The Middle East seems to Westerners a helpless quagmire of war and instability. A thousand years ago it was very different. Europe was a welter of petty, military dictatorships, while the Middle East was exporting scientific and philosophical thought.

(AP)

It’s True But Not Here

By PNK

THERE is a saying that marriages are made in heaven though some say that "hell is not far behind". That may be true as good means that bad has to be there . When there’s God, Satan too has its presence felt. But one thing remains a mystery or rather an unknown fact as to who got marriages going the way they go .

The story may be as old as humanity itself. Well, there are animals and birds who go for the union when the season is in the air otherwise they lead their own life. Maybe the lion doesn’t unless it’s dirven away by a more powerful rival. Otherwise they stick to their pride. Yet, there are some animals or birds which remain together though without the formalities or bash as human beings are used to.

Marriage in itself as a social ritual is a propaganda to make it known as to who are the wedded couples. If marriages hadn’t been fun the society would have frowned upon it. It would not give the approval to make it a grand affair with all the fanfare banking on extravaganza. And it has remained today as it was centuries ago. The basic human touch remains the same but times have changed.

There are many who think that the less the wedding expenses incurred you are all the more progressive. Heavy expenses and you could be dubbed a wealthy and respectable person—no one to question you how you got the green bucks. In our country, at least, there are laws regarding the dowry and the guest number but who cares when they are not implemented at all. It’s all pumpkin pie for those whose hands sweat a lot of dough. For the poor, like what happened recently, a bridegroom staged a robbery just for the sake of getting a fit and expensive present for his waiting bride. That’s what it all leads to.

Some get married many times yet no law comes to nab them. But, on some very rare and exceptional occasions, a two timer just lands up behind bars. may be many women are still not aware of their rights. the case however is different when it comes to extra-marital affairs. Most of the men just go scot free while the women get labelled for adultery and what not. The double standard still holds true in our society.

It’s a funny society that we have. man getting married again and again seems to be no news but when it comes for a woman things are different. The society, male-dominated that it is despite the hoarse cry for women’s empowerment,obviously tolerates a man’s supremacy. But what would he be without all the support of the women. That’s the crux of the matter.

It’s known that men often complain of being the second fiddle at home yet the women claim of being the sufferer. The paradox just is too complex to comprehend. Despite this it’s true that the brunt of domestic violence fall heavy on the women. In the rural parts the story often goes that the wife walks out on her husband and the husband has to get another one to run the house.

Despite all this, a man ‘walking down the aisle" more than once is rather rare. But when one hears of a famous oft wed actress Joan Collins (68) getting married for the fifth time with a man 30 years younger than her sure makes an average Nepali bewildered. Is it possible? Yes, that is, but not in our country. Clandestine rendezvous is but not an open wedding. That shows the power of women empowerment. interpret it anyway you like.