ARCHITECTURAL RESTORATION and Seismic Strengthening OF GÖNPA GANG
The proposed restoration project aims to address all architectural issues of the monument, to ensure the seismic stability of the building, and to prepare the monument for more extensive future use both by the community and visitors to the region. Further, restoring the architecture is a prerequisite for a follow up project dedicated to the cleaning and restoration of the precious murals contained in the monument.
This project was conceptualized after a meeting held by members of the Norbusum Foundation with community members in the nearby village of Chuksang to better understand the community engagement with the structure, and their hopes for the future. Without exception, the community expressed a united hope that the structure could be preserved and reinstated as an ‘active’ temple.
Lastly, with increasingly heavy rainfall noted in Mustang in recent years, we can expect that damage to the structure will only increase in coming years if it is not restored in its entirety. Anecdotal evidence from the local communities is supported by meteorological data that shows that the effects of climate change will lead to increasingly heavy rain events. The traditional rammed earth construction was not designed to tolerate rain events of the size that we are now seeing, and can expect in the future. This adds to the urgency of our request to ensure that the structure is weather-tight.
This project is designed to:
This project was conceptualized after a meeting held by members of the Norbusum Foundation with community members in the nearby village of Chuksang to better understand the community engagement with the structure, and their hopes for the future. Without exception, the community expressed a united hope that the structure could be preserved and reinstated as an ‘active’ temple.
Lastly, with increasingly heavy rainfall noted in Mustang in recent years, we can expect that damage to the structure will only increase in coming years if it is not restored in its entirety. Anecdotal evidence from the local communities is supported by meteorological data that shows that the effects of climate change will lead to increasingly heavy rain events. The traditional rammed earth construction was not designed to tolerate rain events of the size that we are now seeing, and can expect in the future. This adds to the urgency of our request to ensure that the structure is weather-tight.
This project is designed to:
- address the severe architectural problems of this under maintained but extremely valuable monument,
- strengthen its architecture to continue to withhold seismic events,
- consolidate all original features in the interior of the monument,
- engage the community in planning the future usage and long term maintenance of the monument,
- prepare the monument for more intensive future usage, and
- plan future painting conservation measures.