Work concept

Introduction
The Conservation Area Concept
Traditional Preservation Attitude in Tibet
UNESCO Guidelines
Program Preparation and Aims

In 1993, the Lhasa Archive Project (LAP) was founded with the aim to study and document all aspects of the old city of Lhasa, which was then beginning to undergo an immense transformation. Of more than 400 historic buildings counted then, only 150 remained in 2001. The old residential buildings in all their varieties of height, size and design have been replaced by four-storey housing blocks of uniform design, with Tibetan decorations painted on the outside but lacking modern infrastructure on the inside. Former public spaces have been built up. As a result, the population in the inner city has doubled over the past ten years, without all the necessary corresponding improvements of the infrastructure in the area.

1994 and 2001: Southern Ramoche area in 1994, in the center the 15th century Ganden Khangsar House, behind the golden roof of Ramoche Temple. Same view in 2001 - all buildings have been rebuilt in four storeys' height and uniform design, completely transforming the historic neighbourhood.

THF directly evolved out of this documentation project, as an attempt to contribute to the further development of Lhasa through cooperation with the city government. In 1996, THF signed the first of a series of agreements with Lhasa municipal authorities to jointly undertake a restoration and infrastructure program with the aim of ultimately rehabilitating Lhasa's old city district.

THF diagnosed that a creeping, chronic illness had befallen the historic neighbourhoods. The old buildings crumbled away and decayed, fell to pieces, became deserted, finally to be broken down and replaced by soulless new buildings (which in the case of Lhasa did not offer any more conveniences than the old ones, bad insulation, no heating, and no plumbing). To make the old city into a sustainable, well-preserved, authentic and comfortable area, strong medicine was needed urgently, and what was needed above else was a "Doctor for Architecture" (to use the term created by Austrian architect Hundertwasser). In order to devise an effective cure, this doctor would have to look at all the different elements that define life in the old city, regulations, trends and aspirations. Preservation does not mean to simply mark the most beautiful and historically important buildings, turn these into museums, and clear the rest for commercial re-development. All buildings, small and big, important and not important, beautiful and ugly make up the historic area together, like brothers of one family. None should be excluded, because each has its place. This also means that money spent on urban rehabilitation should be equally divided between all the old buildings, and all the alleyways, and benefit all of the residents.

The people who inhabit them are an element almost equal in importance to the old buildings of a neighbourhood themselves, for without them the alleys and buildings would be empty and lifeless. The way of life in the old streets therefore needs to be preserved urgently. Even the tourists prefer to see the natural lifestyle rather than too many empty museums.

Of course often life in the old quarters is hard, buildings are too overcrowded and have very poor facilities. Yet the original condition of historic city districts, their scale and grain, the narrowness providing intimacy and archaic facades providing privacy, can become areas of considerably high quality of living compared to many bleak modern housing estates, if the effort is made to improve the facilities while leaving the structures intact. This applies to Lhasa, but also to other Asian cities where development and conservation currently clash. Residents of old neighbourhoods who want to move out should do so, but residents who wish to remain need an improvement of their life-quality as an integral part of any rehabilitation project, and their opinions deserve to be listened to.

A city seldom if equals ever abstract lines drawn by planners and bureaucrats. A city consists of its residents, its buildings and its history, all of which are subject to change and evolution. THF made its program for Lhasa community-based, we wanted to restore the old town for the people who live there, in the hope that tourists and visitors will also find reasons to appreciate our work.

Different concepts of restoration and conservation are suitable for different situations and needs. Conservation of monuments and historic buildings transformed into showcases open for visitors, the museum-type approach, is suitable for ancient ruins and distant castles. Inner city areas populated by ordinary tenants need an approach that takes the residents' needs into account. On the technical level, adequate technologies for restoration and infrastructure improvement need to be employed, and individual solutions and new technologies developed. Complete survey information of all listed buildings should be available to the relevant government agencies.

The THF principles for the Lhasa old city program are perhaps best represented by the German model of "behutsame Stadterneuerung" ("careful urban renewal"), adapted for the Tibetan context and with strong emphasis on architectural conservation. The German model places equal emphasis on the preservation of historic areas in their contemporary urban context and on infrastructure improvement based on actual needs, with a grass-roots approach where residents and planners meet. For implementation at micro-level, a larger district is divided into different conservation areas (Sanierungsgebiete). A legislative framework strictly limits the percentage of housing that can be transformed into commercial spaces and offices. Rent control enables the original residents to stay even if the entire area becomes more desirable and so increases in value. Commercial development, which does bring money into an area, needs to be carefully controlled, so as to prevent any damage to the fragile organic fabric of a historic neighbourhood. Preservation regulations in Europe address a wide range of topics including window frame colours, size and material of advertising boards and environmental concerns.

In Lhasa, THF placed high priority on urgently preserving intact neighbourhoods and clusters of historic buildings. For practical reasons, it was decided to establish a model conservation area, which should be centrally located. In this area, restoration and infrastructure improvement projects should be planned and implemented together with the local residents and the authorities. The work should then have positive influence on the rest of the old city. However, even while concentrating on the work in the first conservation area, which was the Barkor Street area, THF continuously lobbied for official protection of all the remaining historic buildings or at least of as many of the important ones as possible. To this end, documentation and study work was being carried out in several parts of the city, and urgent relief work planned and implemented.

In the Tibetan tradition, only the most valued building elements (such as revered religious murals or structural elements with historic connotations) would be preserved in their original state. In most cases, when necessity warranted repair works, old buildings (monasteries and manor houses alike) were often partially rebuilt and in the process modified according to contemporary taste. Until today, this attitude towards preservation is only slowly changing, and sometimes good intentions can lead to the disappearance of precious historic fragments of art and architecture in a rehabilitation site.

The immense loss of historic structures in Tibet during the 1960s should warrant the preservation of as many of the scarce remaining historic building structures as possible. These surviving structures should now be studied and documented closely to increase our knowledge of techniques and materials used in the past, and preserved as important examples. In the present situation, study has to be a higher priority than restoration, especially if carried out ill-prepared with inadequate techniques and materials.

Moreover, most crafts have since been re-organised (in the form of state-run or private construction companies). New materials that are comparatively cheap and easily available have been introduced (e.g. concrete). This has caused many traditional techniques to fall into disuse. Traditional skills now need to be revitalized, and then to evolve and specialize (eg restoration, new high-quality construction).

The modern development of Lhasa will certainly go on and will find ample space in the Lhasa valley. The comparatively small size of the old city (about 3% of the present city area), and the cultural and historic value of its ancient structures, now seem to fully justify the introduction of internationally accepted approaches to conservation.

The work of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO is providing an internationally-accepted framework for conservation work. THF in particular subscribes to the charter for historic cities adopted by an advisory body for UNESCO, the International Council On Monuments and Sites ICOMOS.

General Management Guidelines put forward by ICCROM, another advisory body, have also been found helpful.

On the basis of ICCROM evaluation for conservation, the treatment of a heritage resource should be based on a critical process, which aims at cultivating an appreciation of the heritage as an integral part of society by developing a framework for related resource values. The process includes the following steps: Survey, definition, analysis and strategy.

Survey: The resource is surveyed and documented in its historical setting and its physical environment.

Definition: The site is defined historically and so given it its significance.

Analysis: The object, materials and structural system is scientifically analysed with a view towards its conservation.

Strategy: The strategy includes long-term and short-term programs for conservation, management and maintenance.

(Source: Feilden, Bernard M; Jokilehto, Jukka: Management Guidelines for World Cultural Heritage Sites, ICCROM, advisory body to UNESCO; cited and summarised by Katja Virtanen)

Imbued with a message from the past, the historic monuments of generations of people remain to the present day as living witnesses of their age-old traditions. People are becoming more and more conscious of the unity of human values and regard ancient monuments as a common heritage. The common responsibility to safeguard them for future generations is recognised. It is our duty to hand them on in the full richness of their authenticity.

...After the conditions, the communities and the remaining buildings had been studied, inventorized, surveyed and analyzed, planning for adequate rehabilitation posed the urgent question as to who could carry out such work. Inspection of rehabilitation works done by established local construction companies revealed several weak points. Too many old techniques seem to have been forgotten, and the work is done quickly and roughly, too often without the fine qualities we can observe in unrestored old buildings.

THF spent many months to identify old masters, who had learned their skills in the 1940s and 1950s. Even at their advanced age, such masters like Mr. Chimo Migmar, Mr. Chimo Jampa Kelsang and Mrs. Shaepon Ama Trasi enthusiastically agreed to act as on-site experts, doing both supervision of restoration and training of apprentices.