A glimpse of Nepal’s ‘disappearing’ culture in its heritage hotels
- Converting old houses into hotels has helped preserve traditional architecture, while offering visitors a taste of the local lifestyle
When Devendra Shrestha’s more than 300-year-old house was crumbling, he chose not to demolish it and replace it with a concrete building like many of his neighbours in the historic Patan area. Instead, he renovated and transformed it into a hotel.
The hotel, named Newa Chen after Kathmandu Valley’s indigenous Newa people, became the first traditional private home converted into a tourist accommodation in 2006. Since then, numerous heritage hotels have mushroomed around Patan Durbar Square, a Unesco World Heritage site, offering visitors a taste of the local lifestyle while helping preserve traditional architecture.
“As a family, we realised the importance of our old house,” he said.
“We wanted to safeguard our culture and history while generating income to maintain the house. We wanted to develop it as an example for others.”
