Restoration Method for the Facade of Jahangir’s Tomb, Shahdara, Lahore

Abstract

Historic buildings have their own specialized and traditional techniques used in their construction. These are not generally practiced in modern buildings. Working with stone is very technical, laborious and time consuming job. It needs sensitivity and perfection both at workers 8and supervisor level. It is required to prepare different stone members in exactly the same size, proportion and design according to the requirements of location. To discharge conservation responsibility efficiently and effectively, one has to be conversant with the methods for restoration of stone masonry. This paper describes and examines the method involved in the restoration of stone facade of Mughal Emperor Jahangir’s Tomb. Method, as considered here is a sequence or process of treatment of the raw material, from beginning to end of work. The southern facade of Jahangir’s Tomb was being restored in the year 2004 by the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Pakistan. Thus there was an opportunity to systematically document the method of restoration at this monumental building of the Mughal period. Any work of stone passes through a series of steps, from obtaining the material to final placement of stone member in a building. Working on stone is a subtractive technique. A stone worker can only subtract more stones to correct his mistakes. Therefore all techniques of stone working are based on the need to avoid breaking the stone or removing the material that may be needed later.