Taragaon Museum

Address Near Boudhanath, Kathmandu

The Taragaon Museum occupies a landmark building next to the Boudhanath stupa — a 1970s Austrian modernist structure designed by Carl Pruscha, with circular forms that have drawn comparisons to the Star Wars universe. The museum documents the history of Kathmandu's architectural heritage and the international research community that worked in Nepal during the Cold War decades, when the country was a centre for the study of Himalayan culture and art.

The building itself is worth seeing for its architecture alone; the exhibitions are thoughtful and well-designed by Nepali standards. A good combination with a visit to Boudhanath — the two are effectively next door to each other.

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A story
The Taragaon complex was built in 1975 as a hostel for foreign researchers and scholars working in Nepal — archaeologists, anthropologists, art historians — at a moment when Kathmandu was becoming important in the international study of Asian religion and culture. The architect Carl Pruscha designed the building in a bold 1970s modernist idiom: curved concrete forms and circular modules that look, from above, like something between a space station and a Buddhist mandala. It was derelict for years and has now been converted into a museum of its own history and of Nepal's architectural heritage.

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