Nepal, June 27 -- Two days after the 2015 earthquake, I found myself in the Patan Durbar Square. I had a regular column at the time with The Kathmandu Post, 'On Art & Architecture', and I needed to take stock.

The ground was still shaking with aftershocks whilst I walked around, and I knew I was doing something incredibly stupid by putting myself in range of the remaining teetering temples. The ones that hadn't collapsed completely like the iconic Char Narayan, the oldest and biggest temple in the Square, were listing badly. The Bhimsen temple, the shrine of all merchants, looked ready to come down at any moment.

Today, if you go to Patan Durbar Square, it looks as if the earthquake never happened. Almost everything has been rebuilt or ...