TU, IOE

CHITWAN ENGINEERING CAMPUS

DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE
RAMPUR , CHITWAN

REPORT ON 55 WINDOW PALACE

SUBMITTED BY : SUBMITTED TO :
BINISHA RAUT AR. SURAJ SHAHI
CHIO77BAR007

DATE : 2079-11–16

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TABLE OF CONTENT

1. Introduction 3
2. King Bhupatindra Malla 3
3. Site Topography And Ecology 3
4. Social , Cultural And Religious Context 4
5. Material And Technology 4
6. Form, Function And Symbolism 4
7. Impact Of Earthquake 5
8. Surroundings Of Palace 6

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1. INTRODUCTION

Fifty-five windows palace is one of the most renowned durbar having fifty-five windows
in one row, a masterpiece of awesome wood, art and as well as famous for the
world-class wall paintings. The 55 Windows Palace is historically recorded as
constructed between 1702 A.D. and 1722 A.D. by King Bhupatindra Malla. Some
historians opine that the foundation stone of the palace was laid during the rule of King
Jitamitra Malla, father of King Bhupatindra Malla. However, the construction of the
palace is credited to King Bhupatindra Malla, considered to be the champion of the
architecture and culture.It is believed that the palace was constructed after an experience
of constructing the five storied temple (Nyatapol) which was evidently completed in a
very short period. The Palace is considered as the landmark of the Bhaktapur Durbar
Square.

KING BHUPATINDRA MALLA

King Bhupatindra Malla was the son of King Jitamitra Malla and Queen Lalmati. He got
the throne at the age of 22 . It is said that he was a good ruler and forward thinker having
keen interest and knowledge in art and culture. This fact is verified by the construction
of Nyatapola Temple and 55 window palaces during his regime. Besides that he had also
done remarkable work in the field of literature especially in Maithili literature.

SITE TOPOGRAPHY AND ECOLOGY

The beautiful structure of 55-windows lies in Bhaktapur durbar square. Bhaktapur

(Nepali: भक्तपरु ), specifically refers to Place of devotees. It is an ancient Newar city in
the east corner of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, about 13 km from the capital city,
Kathmandu. It is located in Bhaktapur District in the Bagmati Zone.Bhaktapur was the
largest of the three Newar kingdoms of the Kathmandu Valley, and was the capital of
Nepal during the great 'Malla Kingdom' until the second half of the 15th century.
Bhaktapur has the best preserved palace courtyards and old city center in Nepal, and is
rich in culture, temples, and wood, metal and stone artworks.It is the home of traditional
art and architecture, historical monuments and craft works, magnificent windows,
pottery and weaving industries, excellent temples, beautiful ponds, rich local customs,
culture, religion, festivals, musical mystic and so on.
The "Palace of Fifty-Five Windows" is located on the northside of Bhaktapur's Durbar
square and comprises the Tripura palace's southeast wing.

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SOCIAL, CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS CONTEXT OF PALACE

One can observe the preeminent illustration of wood carvings of the Malla periods in
this building. The walls of the first floor utter a lot about the then ruling environment.
Images that reflect the social as well as the royal lifestyles of Malla kings can be seen
inside the palace. That includes the wall painting of King Bhupatindra Malla himself
and queen Vishwa Laxmi. The tempera paintings in the first floor of the palace
represent the rare example of the different Devi (Lordess) dances, social life and
culture of the people and include the self-portrait of the king and the queen. The
central figure of the painting is dedicated to Lord Shiva Vishworupa.

MATERIAL AND TECHNOLOGY

The Palace, the masterpiece of medieval period architecture, was built by the local
craftsmen and builders using the then local technology and local materials. The load
bearing walls of the Palace were built in specially made bricks, such as, Maappa and
Dachiappa with mud mortar of high quality. The uppermost main floor of the
structure is encased in wooden frameworks while the middle floor is in red brick.The
floors, beams, windows and doors were made of different types of available timbers,
such as pine, sal, teak and other types. Special roofing tiles (Jhingate) were used to
cover the sloped roofs on timber supports.The palace illustrates wood carvings of the
Malla period and that somehow seems more attractive with black coloring. The first
story has doors alternating with small wood carved windows. And the second one is
blessed with eleven deep carved windows in the front part with a slanting torona over
it. There are carvings of Asta bhairava with his shakti and also the carved sculptures
of Lord Ganesha and Lord Kumar in those toronas.At the time of its construction,
glass was in such short supply that only one of the windows was originally glazed
using glass plating produced in India.This piece of glass was considered so rare and
valuable that the Raja placed it in the window as an object of wonder for the people.

FORM, FUNCTION AND SYMBOLISM

It is a three-story structure with two brickwork levels interspersed with a rhythmic

series of alternating doors and windows. The upper level is constructed as a
continuous balcony of fifty-five windows with lattice screens, colonettes, and
trilobate arches—all made of wood, generally pine, sal, or teak—that combine to
produce a thickly-layered, three-dimensional surface that commands the eye.The

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upper part of this structure was collapsed in 1934 but subsequently rebuilt. In plan,
the overall building is U-shaped, with the mouth of the "U" facing north, framing one
of the six chowk, or courtyards, that are interspersed throughout the palace. Although
only six such courtyards remain at present, at least twelve still existed as late as
1742.Off-limits to the public (until recently) are a series of mural paintings lining the
middle level's outer wall, painted in a style referred to as "Rajasthani". These
primarily depict the eighth avatar of Vishnu, who is rendered in a conspicuous bluish
color. It presents a departure in the overall form of the courtyard house by taking a
half court (Khanda-chowk) and presents its own considered structural approach to it.
It also expanded the viman window to cover the whole external surface of the Chota
floor wrapping it around using 55 bays, 33 on the long side and 11 each on the sides.
At the same time it structurally summarized the knowledge of the Ku-jhya, a corner
window, and streamlined and merged it with that of the structural system of the
Viman-jhya, a projected multi-bayed vertical window. Moreover, the palace was
likely made for musical purposes as supported by the recent discoveries of 147
carvings of musical rāgas and their names on the cornice separating the ground floor
and the first floor of the palace.

IMPACT OF EARTHQUAKE

This palace was damaged by the earthquake of 1934; the top floor was entirely
destroyed.Like most reconstruction at that time, the palace of fifty-five windows was
reconstructed haphazardly. As a result, the windows on the top floor which
previously protruded out of the façade forming a balcony like structure were simply
plastered to the façade and European style roof tiles were used instead of the
Nepalese traditional ones.In the 19th century, the palace was used as for
administrative purposes including a post office and as such the frescoes in the second
floor were greatly damaged and covered in soot, ink and glue stains making them
unrecognizable. After the administrative offices were shifted in the 1980s, the West
German government funded committee studied the frescos in the palace and the
frescoes were cleaned by them, although some of the damage was
irreversible.Similarly, in 2006 the city government of Bhaktapur renovated the entire
palace; the European roof tiles were replaced with the traditional pōla appāh and the
top floor windows were renovated as a balcony . Although the renovation was not
perfect as the top floor windows in the western and eastern façade still lack the floral
tympanum it once had and the wooden struts supporting them were once decorated
with the images of various deities but now are plain wood.

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SURROUNDING AREA OF PALACE

Bhupatindra column and taleju bell:

With hands folded in a prayer position, the bronze statue of King Bhupatindra Malla
sits atop a column in front of the Vatsala Durga Temple which lies on the south side
of the palace .The taleju bell is a symbol of devotion toward the goddess taleju.The
column and the bell lies side by side in front of Vatsala devi temple.The big bell is
hung in an open platform above the four stone pillars. One can have a close glimpse
of the statue of king Bhupatindra Malla and the durbar area from that open platform.

Golden gate :
To the west of the palace lies Golden gate. The paragon dated back to 1757 AD,
which artistically shows how different symbols, representations of deities, animals as
well as ancient styles of architecture could perfectly be blended into one
whittle.Local people allied this door as Swarnadwar.The gate was a purpose to
dedicate to the Taleju Bhawani temple.. This gate is made in pagoda roofing style.
The concoction of bricks, mud mortar, stone, wood, and gold gilded copper gave
shape to this gate

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fig : drawing of general view of structure from south-west (real photo)

fig: drawing of few H-shaped small window openings (real photo)

fig :drawing of larger doorways with carvings of lords (real photo , without carvings on door)

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 fig :fresco on the wall of first floor of palace fig :details of torans over doors and windows

CONCLUSION :
Hence , the 55 window palace is a dominant building down the left side of Bhaktapur durbar
square which has continuously reflected the Malla architecture and the love of king
Bhupatindra Malla towards art and architecture . The buildings glorify the usage of wood in
traditional palaces and how local materials were used in innovative ways to create an artful
impact.

Bibliography

Traditional architecture of Kathmandu valley by Wolfkang korn

Final report on conservation of 55 window palace by Arrmang Shrestha
https://www.orientalarchitecture.com/sid/1476/nepal/bhaktapur/fifty-five-windows-palace

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