The opulent 18th century building, which had been serving as Nepal’s oldest library, has been barred to the public for the first time since it opened its doors in 1969. Those who regularly used the library’s facilities have been incredibly saddened and inconvenienced. Every now and then, even tourists have been known to come by and inquire about the chances of the famous library’s reopening. But the fact is, seven months on since the April/May earthquakes and its gigantic rooms and halls are still literally under lock and key. Even the library’s staff members are still working from either tents or the ground floor office space that they have been able to sublet from somebody else.
Mishra, however, made an exception for The Week and gave access to Priyanka Gurung in order to discuss the present state and future prospects of Kaiser Library.
State of the building
After thorough inspection, the Kaiser library has reportedly been given a yellow sticker. With tremors being felt in Kathmandu to this day, the staff doesn’t risk going in at all. The damages are evident at first sight. Cracks run through most of the high pillars, plasters have fallen out in several places, and on the second floor, there are spots where one can feel the flooring protrude.
But surprisingly, despite the damages, the rooms of the library somehow still maintain a degree of grandeur and royal charm. The intricately designed, one of a kind colorful ceiling remains intact. Mishra also guarantees that none of the historic
28,000 items in Kaiser Library in sorry state after quake
Rana regime portraits or the ornate photo frames (which roughly tally up to a 1000) has been damaged. For precaution though, they have been taken of the walls. A couple of Edwardian style sculptures apparently couldn’t be saved, but the rest of the interior artworks as well as the infamous taxidermy collections are in good condition.
The book collections
The Kaiser Library boasts more than 50,000 books, documents, periodicals and manuscripts. This library is officially recognized as owing the richest collection of rare books and manuscripts in the country. It is what makes Kaiser Library the best from a historical and archeological point of view. Thus with immense relief, Mishra assures us that not a single book, document, periodical, and manuscript has been compromised.
As we can imagine, the earthquake had left the library in complete shambles. The hundreds of rows of bookshelves and cupboards had all toppled, some even shattering to pieces as it fell. It has taken the staff all these seven months to sort through them. Actually Mishra says they still have to sift through the Nepali books. The English reads, on the other hand, have been categorized as per requirement into the Kaiser collection, the modern collection, the periodical collection and so on. Now due to the lack of space, the books are being labeled and stored in sacks. This obviously isn’t the ideal scenario, but it’s the best the library management can do at the moment. With help from soldiers from the Nepal army, Mishra and his staff have been able to bring thousands of these sacks together on the ground floor.
Reconstruction prospects
“It isn’t advisable to keep these books in sacks especially since some of them are a good century old. We are well aware of that,” says Mishra. At the moment, their main concern is conserving the collections they have. It was important to get them out of the dust and the debris. Mishra again insists that they are doing the best they can with the limited space and budget that is available to them.
It would be best to kick start the retrofitting process of the building as soon as possible. However, like the other cultural heritages across the country, Kaiser Library is also considered the government’s responsibility. Mishra and his staff have little choice but to wait for them to issue reconstruction plans.
This doesn’t mean that there haven’t been interested donors. Some well-wishers of the library as well as a handful of NGOs have reportedly shown interest to help. However, the library hasn’t taken up any of the offers yet.
The visitors
Technically speaking, the Kaiser Library is open. The staffs show up to work every weekday, and along with the sorting duties they also regularly attend to visitors. While the library used to host around at least 1,000 visitors per day, these days the staff reports that the number has dwindled to around 30 per day. Every now and then there are students, researchers or office workers coming by to inquire about certain books, documents and records. Unfortunately, the most they can access at the moment is the newspaper archive.
Every single day, the staffs at the Kaiser Library have to explain to the visitors that they are not up and running yet. Mishra claims that they could be catering to the visitors in about a week if they had space available but since that is not the case his staffs are compelled to sew all the books shut in sacks. Naturally, many visitors wonder if Mishra can give a tentative date as to when they can use the facilities of the library again. However, so far despite the best of their abilities and intentions, the future for the Kaiser Library building as well as their collection remains uncertain.
