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Thimphu, 1st October 2011

a)

Introduction

b)

Urgent safety measures

c)

Most serious damage

d)

Layout drawing

e)

Building Pictures

f)

Damage to Main Lakhang

a)

Introduction:
The recent earthquake of 18 September 2011 caused serious damage to the existing buildings of Neyphung Monastery in Paro Bhutan. The following brief report summarizes the most serious destruction and outlines the major damage caused to the building structures only, minor cracks will not be listed. The findings were evaluated during a short site visit to the monastery on 1st October 2011. Additional damage may be found during a more detailed building and site survey. The report lists mainly physical/structural damage at the existing building infrastructure. The damage survey focuses less on damage on valuable traditional paintings at the Lakhang walls and religious artefacts, which need to be evaluated urgently by a specialist before structural demolishing and reconstruction work starts.
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b)

Urgent Safety Measures required:
- fencing off outer area south/side of main Lakhang as the wall at upper floor could fall.
- close down the toilet/shower building GF/UF at the west side (length min 3 toilets).
- close down side rooms at upper altar room 1st floor towards south.
- Demolish heavy elevation walls UF carefully to avoid the wall falling inside building.
- control patch over sliding cracks at shower/toilet building to evaluate further sliding.
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c)

Most serious Damages;
- Lakhang upper floor, collapsed south side mud elevation wall at the southern side choesum, requires careful removing and replacing.
- Lakhang upper floor front elevation two mud wall partition between front ecra/rapse are internally broken, wall parts shifted inside the temple room.
- Toilet Shower building west side entirey destroyed, that part of the building is in danger of slipping off towards the valley side
- Sewage septic tank walls presumably damaged at building side, possible leaking sewage downhill, possibly weekaning the foundation of the Toilet Shower buidling even more which is already sliding.
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d)

Building Layout (not scaled):
Rooms are shown in following colours;
- red => heavily damaged areas lakhang first floor
- yellow => medium damages
- green => minor or no damages

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e)

Pictures of existing Monastery Buildings:

View Main Lakhang from Northern Entrance side	View Main Lakhang from Inner Yard South West side
View Dormitory Building North West elevation	View Shower and Toilet building West elevation

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f)

Damages at the Lakhang Building
Lakhang Ground Floor Plan:

01	Due to the heavy tremor movements, the wooden dung beam shifted partly out of its wall saddle and damaged the wall structure below.
02	The wooden katchen/pillar post burst at its base due to heavy overload during the tremor movements and needs urgently to be replaced (see photos no P02a).
03	The dung beam saddle was damaged and caused cracks at the upper wall, destroyed traditional wall paintings. (see photos no P03a).
04	Wall crack between outer elevation wall and internal cross wall (see attached photos no P04a).
05	Wooden dung beam shifted partly out of the wall saddle and damaged the wall structure and mural paintings below.
06	Wooden dung beam shifted partly out of the wall saddle and damaged the wall structure and paintings below (see photo no P06a).
07	Wall cracks in the rammed mud wall, traditional paintings got damaged (see photo no P07a).
08	Wall crack trough all floors between north and west elevation (see 2 photo no P08a/P11a).

Lakhang Upper Floor:

09	Wooden dung beams were partly pulled out of its wall saddle and damaged the wall structure and paintings below.
10	Internal ecrawall structure separated from length wise dung beam due to different movements during the quake and damaged the wall and paintings
11	Wall crack within the rammed mud elevation wall up to the roof floor
12	Internal ecrawall structure separated from length wise dung beam due to different movements during the quake and damaged the wall and paintings
13	Outer elevation wall cracked and was destroyed, the wall is in danger of falling towards the inner room with its wooden beam ceiling, which potentially could collapse due to the heavy load of the falling mud wall. This could lead to a chain reaction whereby the entire building part marked in red could collapse on itself. This wall section has to be carefully removed. Upper roof and ceiling towards roof needs to be supported during demolishing and reconstruction. More detailed work scenarios could be provided to the implementing authorities (see 4 pictures P13a/P13b/P13c/P13d)
14	All 3 Rapse/Ecra walls at the balconies shifted slightly outwards, the wall sections marked as no 15 and 16 shifted towards inside (see 4 pics P14a/P14b/P14c/P14d).
15	Right wall section in front elevation broke internally, shifted approx 10cm towards the inside temple room, it can not be repaired. The wall urgently has to be replaced. This work requires experts with very good knowledge in traditional construction detailing to foresee all possible reactions in the surrounding wooden sections. This work can be done without demolishing the upper ceiling and roof (see 3 pictures P15a/P15b/P15c)
16	Left wall section between rapse balcony similar damage to wall section right described under chapter 15 above

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g)

Damage to Dormitory Building

17	Damaged wall partition at the inner court yard mud wall (see above layout plan)
18	Door lintel damaged in danger of above wall collapsing, needs to be removed (see picture P18)
19	Wall structure above inner door lintel damaged, needs to be removed
20	Wall connection between inner- and outer elevation wall cracked
21	Wall filling between older wall and newer window collapsed in basement below
22	Side retaining wall in passage to basement entirely collapsed
23	Entire roof shifted in a curve towards the inner yard, it is not known whether this is caused trough the earthquake or by a heavy wind at an earlier time (see 2 pictures P23a/P23b)
24	New wide crack within the outer side elevation wall (see picture P24)

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h)

Serious Damage to Shower / Toilet Building
The entire toilet / shower building slide towards the steep slope below, collapsed in its structure at the western side and is considered as unsafe!

25	Lengthwise appeared cracks along the entire building indicating that the building moved towards the slope. Adding plaster patches over the existing cracks on the eastern elevation, it could be indicated whether the building is still sliding. If new cracks would appear on the control patches, means the building continuous slides valley side, than the entire infrastructure should be closed entirely and dismantled at the earliest. If no further cracks appear on the control patches, the eastern part of the building could still be used until a new toilet/shower building is built. The western destroyed section (length min 2 last toilets) has to be dismantled.
26	Building sections marked in red indicate the part of the building which collapsed. This building section should urgently be closed off. If the destroyed foundation slides any further, the entire building section could fall over. (see 4 pictures P26a/P26b/P26c/P26d)
27	It has to be considered that the septic tank would be cracked too and leaks sewage into the soil below, which would weaken the entire slope and could cause a landslide, pulling the building into the steep slope. It is recommended that the septic tank is emptied to avoid any possible leakages into the sliding soil (see picture P27)

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