NEXT OF KIN

A new generation of hoteliers is prioritising cultural connection over commercial gain

- Coco Marett

The morning after a late-night check-in to The Dwarika’s, I open the curtains for a first glimpse of my surroundings. A layer of mist adds an ethereal glow to the hotel’s central courtyard, its traditional Newari architecture—intricate wood carvings unique to Nepal’s Newari people, indigenous inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley—on full display.

In the 1950s, having seen carpenters cut down an intricately engraved wooden pillar to be incinerated, Dwarika Das Shrestha made it his life’s mission to preserve the dying art of Newari woodcarving. He spent 20 years collecting Newari artefacts such as window frames, doors, eaves and pillars rescued from fallen palaces and temples, and working with local craftsmen to restore them. In 1972, he opened his namesake hotel on the site of an old cattle shed, assembling the pieces he had collected over the years like an architectural jigsaw puzzle. Today, a team of 12 specialised artisans work tirelessly to continue restoring the relics, using machines dating back to the 1960s, in a workshop that guests can visit, just two minutes’ walk from the hotel.

“At the time, my grandfather’s family was very upset,” says René Vijay Shrestha Einhaus, Shrestha’s grandson and the hotel’s current owner and CEO. “He had studied law and worked for the government; they thought he was crazy to leave that behind and dedicate his life to preserving Newari architecture ... Some of these pieces date back to the 13th century.”

Einhaus was born—to a Nepali mother and German father—and raised in Germany, where he went on to work a cushy investment banking job. But, rather like his grandfather, he left that all behind in the name of preserving a piece of Nepali history—and his family’s legacy. “I never intended to move to Nepal. But one day, it was like I had an epiphany; I guess you could say it was a calling.”