"Thresholds of Kathmandu Valley: The Openings" by Nandja Chopra
Nandja Chopra is a trained architect, currently pursuing her master’s in Urban Design at the School of Planning and Architecture (SPA) in Delhi.
Fig. 1: A journey through the thresholds of the Kathmandu Valley take one from the 19th to the 21st century. Photos taken by Nandja Chopra.
The doors and windows of the Kathmandu Valley tell a different story of its heritage. The doors are not just entrances to homes, but also a member or rather a separator of various realms of public and private areas. They weave a complex network and bind together various thresholds of public realms, religion, culture, and people. The doors have evolved over the 17th to 20th centuries, and much older doors are now hard to find, but there are a few places that still retain this heritage. Sometimes such doors are tucked away in small lanes, many a time preserved by people and put on display in their homes, while others have found a new home even in the localized museums of the valley.
The doors and windows are usually made out of timber, brought from outside the valley. The doors overlooking the streets have frames with symbols carved on them; these symbols are pertinent to the householder. These openings are also a tool to understand the archaeological evidence and dating of the buildings.
Fig. 2: The liminal doors and thresholds to the valley.
Elaborate openings, like san jhyah, depict Mughal influences. The central windows have wooden lattices (tiki jhyahlarger), and they are larger and have more elaborate carvings. This is particular to the Newar architecture of Nepal. The windows extend themselves into the balcony with lattice work in front, sloping outwards from the bench to meet the edge of the roof. The doors, on the other hand, are later additions to the morphology of the urban form of buildings. Since the 19th century, the usage of the ground floor has changed from storing animals to weaving. Since weaving required more light and ventilation, the use of doors on the ground floor was introduced. The entrance door on the front wall had a kumara mandala in front of it, while the rear area needed access to kheba, the backyard or garden.
The openings in the residential units and urban morphology were a way of social organization of the Newar community. These liminal artifacts are particular and typical to this region. Rapidly changing times are likewise changing these urban artifacts, creating a need for them to be mined, preserved, and cataloged.
Figure 3: The doors and windows as urban thresholds, leading from public to private and in-between public realms.
References:
Kirtipur: An Urban Community In Nepal: Its People, Town Planning, Architecture and Arts (First Edition). (n.d.). Araxus.