I spent eleven days in the Kathmandu Valley, primarily in the ancient city of Patan. My tour guide was the anthropologist Bruce Owens, who speaks fluent Newar and has studied festivals in Nepal for his entire career. Bruce is also a wonderful photographer and art lover, and gifted me access to his extensive cultural knowledge and network of collaborators.
The Nepali people had endured a catastrophic earthquake in 2015 that killed nearly 9000 people and leveled hundreds of ancient temples. So in addition to experiencing the profoundly rich visual culture of Patan—a sensorial accretion of pigment, aromas, and cacophony, I happened to be visiting at a time of rebuilding.
I met with a structural engineer consulting with the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust (KVPT), who explained in detail how and why the temples and structures are so vulnerable. I also met with young architects in Kathmandu who were building a school library using a novel system they had developed in which pressure-treated bamboo members are fitted into polyhedron steel joints like tinker toys.