There will always be the scornful who will say that Nepal is too poor to be worried about maintaining some crumbling old temples. Why, when Nepali children don't get enough to eat, should we spend money on the upkeep of termite-infested courtyards? This argument is disingenuous. To begin with, there is now strong evidence that Nepal is in fact not a poor country at all. Reports published in this paper and elsewhere point out that huge amounts of cash are being pumped into the informal economy by Nepalis working abroad. Nepalis are bulging with cash: Rs 50 billion is floating around at any given time. The problem is that this money is not being invested productively to create jobs and generate new wealth.

It is also concentrated in the hands of a very few: the gap between rich and poor in Nepal is one of the widest even in South Asia's unequal society. So, if there is poverty here, it is of the mind. Of creativ-ity, vision, and a commitment to development and the future. Some of that creativity is now urgently needed to preserve Kath-mandu Valley's endangered heritage. We may pat ourselves on the back for having fobbed off attempts by the World Heritage Centre to de-list our monuments from the List of World Heritage Sites. But the fact of the matter is that our heritage is under grave threat, and we have not shown the political will to preserve the rich cultural landscape of Kathmandu. It now seems some of the conscientious people of the Valley are not waiting for the government or UNESCO to tell them how bad things are. They have started renovating and restoring by themselves. Both should support these efforts and find ways to replicate them.