KATHMANDU, Nepal — The blue-rimmed eyes of Kathmandu’s gold-spired Swayambhunath stupa have long stared silently from a lush hilltop overlooking this city nestled in the Himalayan foothills.
But since Nepal was shattered by a mammoth earthquake last weekend, those eyes have gazed upon a nation in mourning — and on a microcosm of its despair inside the ancient temple itself.
Here, monkeys scurry across the demolished ruins of a pair of precious bullet-shaped edifices built by King Pratap Malla in the 1600s. Saffron-robed monks haul golden relics and carpets out of a ruined monastery. The temple now has its own population of displaced — priests and vendors huddle under tents, after their own homes in the complex crumbled.
Swayambhunath, which dates back to the fifth century, is one of at least 68 cultural heritage sites in Nepal damaged by the tremor, according to Nipuna Shrestha of the UNESCO, the U.N. cultural heritage organization, citing preliminary figures from the Department of Archaeology.
That’s nearly 80 percent of historic landmarks in seven monument zones that have been declared World Heritage Sites in the Kathmandu Valley alone.
Few would compare the loss of Nepal’s historic treasures to the massive human misery wrought by the magnitude-7.8 quake, which has resulted in more than 7,000 deaths, damaged more than a million homes and displaced nearly 3 million people.
Yet, “it’s hard to describe how painful this is,” Shrestha said. “These are not just monuments, they are part of our daily life. It feels like losing part of your family.”
Shrestha said at least 18 other monuments are known to have been damaged elsewhere, but information has been incomplete because phone networks have been disrupted and roads severed by avalanches. The sites most heavily affected were made of brick and wood.
Terrifying footage posted on YouTube of the moment the quake hit one temple complex in Bhaktapur, just east of the capital, shows chunks falling from the top of a crumbling temple as it is enshrouded in a cloud of brown dust.
Speaking last week, Prime Minister Sushil Koirala said the government’s first priority was relief and rescue for all those affected. But he also vowed to rebuild “all structures of historical, religious and archaeological significance.”
Among the landmarks destroyed in the capital was the iconic, nine-story Dharahara Tower, which was topped by a statue of Shiva — the god of destruction in Hinduism, the predominant religion among Nepal’s 28 million people. The second biggest religion is Buddhism.
Police say at least 60 bodies were recovered, most of whom were inside the tower’s 213-step spiral staircase at the time.
Amrit Sharma, an Indian national who grew up in Kathmandu and has spent much of his life here, said the tower was like “our Washington Monument, our Empire State building.”
Among the worst-hit sites was Kathmandu’s historic center, Basantapur Durbar Square. Built between the 12th and 18th centuries, it is a place where kings have been coronated and religious festivals are held. The Nepal Archaeology Department website calls it “an open museum of Nepalese culture, art and architecture.”
Steps that once led to a pair of pagoda-style Hindu temples with multitiered roofs now lead nowhere, resembling giant anthills. One of them, Kasthamandap, was built five centuries ago and is thought to have been constructed from the timber of a single tree.
Elsewhere, a 17th-century statue of Garuda, a birdlike deity in Hinduism ridden by the god Vishnu, lies at the bottom of a tall stone pillar it once adorned. Other temples have been leveled completely.
