KATHMANDU -- Just inside the entrance to Kathmandu's iconic Durbar Square, an exhibition explains reconstruction work following a devastating earthquake in 2015. Close by, an array of Chinese flags marks a Chinese government project to rebuild the top four floors of Nautale Durbar, a nine-story 18th century palace built by the first king of Nepal's Shah dynasty, which reigned until 2008.
Further ahead, construction workers move wheelbarrows through the stone-paved courtyard of a 19th century neoclassical building whose reconstruction has been funded by the U.S. The Japanese government is rebuilding Agam Chhen, a three-story temple that housed the family deity of Nepal's earlier kings of the Malla dynasty. In another part of the square salvaged bricks are piled high at the base of a centuries-old temple. Torn tarpaulins barely cover the bricks. Elsewhere, damaged temples are propped up by wooden beams.
These buildings are among heritage sites damaged by the earthquake, which killed more than 9,000 people and injured more than 22,000 on April 25, 2015. But as Nepal marks the third anniversary of the tremor, which damaged more than half a million homes and other buildings, local groups are protesting over what they see as a lack of transparency in the reconstruction process and the use of unconventional materials to rebuild heritage sites.
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