Building a 'cultural city

Heritage, identity, and the politics of reconstruction in Bhaktapur, Nepal

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2391301
AutoresCameron David Warner (0000-0003-0160-1265, Aarhus University, autor de correspondencia), Kiana Hacker (0000-0002-2502-264X), Katherine Hacker (University of British Columbia), Manoj Suji (0000-0001-5778-6874, Concordia University), Line Holm Wahlqvist (0009-0006-9010-0102, Aarhus University), Shneiderman (0000-0003-1584-6044, University of British Columbia)
Año2025
Volumen30
Número2
Páginas212-238
Fecha de publicación2025-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/13591835251316092
OpenAlexW4408523190
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas30

Nepal's devastating 2015 earthquakes prompted anxious attention to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)-designated World Heritage sites in the Kathmandu Valley and the means and methods for rebuilding damaged monuments and residences. As a value-loaded concept, the debate over 'heritage' today lays bare tensions between the national government and local authorities over the use of foreign experts, building techniques and materials, and the appropriate aesthetics for heritage reconstruction. Drawing upon ethnographic data, archival material, and photo documentation from the city of Bhaktapur - one of the three major urban areas of the Kathmandu valley - we trace how local autonomous political power and heritage management unfolded interdependently over time. By considering contestations over the styles of private houses, public temples and former royal palaces, we show how heritage becomes the site of power struggles between a municipality and the national government, between the locally powerful Newar Indigenous community and the nationally dominant caste Hindu hill elite, between private homeowners and public officials. Our findings build on the values-based approach to heritage studies through a focus on heritage as the material manifestation of community values, but also the site where those values are continually contested

Archaeology · Caste · Cultural heritage · Cultural heritage management · Documentation · Elite · Ethnography · Geography · Government (linguistics · Indigenous · Industrial heritage · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation · Law · Public Administration · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies