Bhaktapur Background and Prize Information

Bhaktapur Background & Prize Information

This section is under development.

Preamble

Quick Background Note

Preamble:

At a time when our privileged cities and wealthy states in the North are struggling with seemingly intractable and definitely interrelated problems of local transport, environmental degradation, urban blight, two-speed society, political inertia, and their abject inability to respond to the challenges of Kyoto, the small city of Bhaktapur in the less than wealthy country of Nepal has created a close-to car free city. And while work is still very much in progress, the Bhaktapur experience creating what they like to call a "Pedestrian Township" is already providing a vivid model for transport, environmental and public policy for people, towns and cities all over the world.

We therefore propose to nominate the city, in cooperation with the German Technical Cooperation Program (GTZ) that has worked hand in hand with them over the last twelve years in bringing this about in an exemplary East/West partnership with the people and government of Bhaktapur, for a prestigious international award in the months ahead. The mechanism that we propose to use to prepare this nomination and gather a strong wave of international understanding and support for the Bhaktapur Experience is similar to the manner in which the Stockholm Prize was acquired for the City of Bogotá earlier this year - by setting in motion an international process of discussion and support using the Internet to do this.

Additional background on the city, the project and its accomplishments will be filed here in the weeks immediately ahead. This is to be done via an interactive process that involves above all the city's leaders and their international advisory team, working in co-operation with The Commons.

Ten Quick Background Notes

For those who may not know Bhaktapur all that well, here is a bit of first background, which we intend to amplify and organize here in good order. Most of the following comes from cooperating local sources.

Bhaktapur, literally the "City of Devotees", spreads over an area of 6.88 square kilometers and situated 14 Km. east of Katmandu. The ancient city, was founded in the 12th century by King Anand Dev Malla, and is renowned for its elegant art, antique culture and the typical Newar lifestyle. Shaped like a conch-shell, the city is situated at an altitude of 1401 meters in Katmandu Valley.
Average personal income in Nepal in 2000 works out to about fifty cents per day: not quite enough to buy half a metro ticket in most Western cities.
With its historic temple sites and buildings, the ancient Royal City of Bhaktapur represents a piece of living cultural heritage. In a cooperative program that had its first phase from 1974-1986, Nepal and Germany have been working together in the framework of the Bhaktapur Development Project (BDP) to preserve the cityscape and traditional buildings while improving the living conditions of the inhabitants at the same time.
Before going to Bhaktapur the first time you owe it to yourself to visit first a certain number of other cities of the region. This will give you a solid basis to see and appreciate what they are accomplishing there, and against what odds. Observe the traffic, quality of the air, visual impact, noise levels, the character and pace of street life, cleanliness of the streets, the expression on the faces of the people out on the streets. It is a very different world.
The basic cooperative project behind these important transport and city environment accomplishments is very broad based as well as highly innovative. For example there is today a technical co-operation programme in principle for all municipalities in Nepal, which was designed based on the experiences made in the Bhaktapur Development Project (1974 - 1986).
Bhaktapur is today still not totally vehicle free. The central Durbar Square area is already totally free of all traffic. Trucks and buses are not allowed at any time anywhere in the whole city. Mini buses and mini trucks are allowed only between 9 am and 5 pm. All bus stops and parking areas are situated outside the cities. There is only one main road inside the city, and when you walk along it you might see here and there a few vehicles. Otherwise if you walk through the many small streets you rarely see a vehicle.
The name of the GTZ program that has worked with local leaders and the population to advance this concept for all municipalities in Nepal is called UDLE -- "Urban Development through Local Efforts". (We take careful note of this excellent choice of name.)
Bhaktapur is often said to be the most beautiful and cleanest city in Nepal. The city has already received two respected international awards for its accomplishments in other areas. In 1998 the Cities for Peace Prize of UNESCO for accomplishments in cultural preservation, and in 1999 the "Island of Integrity" award from Transparency International.
Close to 100% of all work in creating and improving the local transport infrastructure has been carried out by local people working with available local materials. What you have here is thus a widely replicable model.
We would like to contrast the Bhaktapur approach with that which has traditionally been brought in by Western advisors in most parts of the world. It is not only protective of the environment, tradition and culture, but it also represents a self-help approach that makes far more sense for most of the very pore countries and cities of the world than the all too familiar, car-oriented, unaffordable (if you believe in social justice, that is) Western Model.

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