Traditional Houses In Nepal
Traditional Nepalese Village Housing
Continuing with the theme of my trip to Nepal, here are some closer up shots of the local houses, taken during my walk in the Himalayan foothills.
Be sure to click on the image to view it full screen!
The basic design of these houses is holistic so as to be suited to the everyday needs of farmers.
An ideal Hill home is one with thick stonewalls, a ground floor kitchen, upper story bedrooms, an attic storage room, a spacious courtyard, veranda, and cozy and clean sheds for livestock.
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If that quote is to be believed than many of the houses I saw were less than "ideal" since they were built from mud/clay and straw bricks rather than stone.
Most had thatched roofs and raised eaves. I also saw a number of bamboo and reed huts.
The majority of houses have two stories, like the ones in these photographs, but some contain only two rooms, a sleeping room and a room for cooking. I saw a few of these too.
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I wonder how many of these are still standing since these photographs were taken prior to the earthquakes in April and May 2015.
Hopefully they weren't too badly affected as they are a long way from Kathmandu.
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Thank you to @juliank and @photocontests for this daily photography contest.
Great photos. Looks like they are drying corn in the first photo. Looks like the cows have free rein on the bottom level . Subsistence farmers are much closer to their land and animals and nature in general.
I have lots of photographs of houses with corn drying on them @stevenpatrick. Must have been the thing to do at them of year. 😊
Presumably it's for their animals or can you reconstitute dried corn with water? Maybe you can. Or maybe they make it into flour.
I'm guessing animal feed, flour, and maybe some seed stock. Or maybe its how the cool kids decorate? haha
It's really nice to see the traditional houses in a country so far from me! These buildings looks simple, but really beautiful! Thanks for share ^_^
You are welcome @silviabeneforti. Thank you for visiting and leaving a comment. Posting these pictures brings back very happy memories but gives me itchy feet! 😁
In the Kulu Valley area of the Himalayas where I lived for many years, the village houses are usually built so that the animals occupy the ground floor and the human family the second floor. The upper floor where humans live has very small doorways, and no windows, but is surrounded by a wooden veranda/balcony on which much of the living takes place. The inner rooms are only for sleeping and cooking, and can be kept warm very easily in the winter because of the thick walls, small doorway and no windows.
You say you lived for many years in the Kulu Valley. That sounds like a story I'd like to hear about. What brought you there, and what caused you to stay? A lot of people it seems, go to such places to get away, to find themselves, etc. The duration can be a couple weeks to maybe a couple years. Beyond that sounds almost like settling down and carving out a life. :)
Why don't you write a fictional account and make a post out of it? We'll see how close to the actual events you might come :-)
Interesting. :) I'm afraid, though, the way my mind works, I wouldn't even attempt to come close to what really happened. I'd come up with less likely scenarios and go with that. Like you followed in the footsteps of Batman or something. :)
Thank you so much for adding that picture and explanation @onceuponatime. That area looks a bit higher than where I was although it might just have been a different time of year.
@glenalbrethsen and I were wondering why the houses in my pictures had a bit of a western look to them i.e. a rectangular shape with a triangular roof. I think the one you've posted is probably more what most people would imagine when thinking of Nepalese houses.
Did you live in a traditional house like that when you were there?
Thank you so much for the upvote by the way. It really is hugely appreciated. 😍
Yes, I lived in houses like that. Manali area, where I lived, was at about 8,000 feet altitude.
Well I'm absolutely gutted now @onceuponatime. After reading your comment I went in search of my souvenirs from Nepal to see how high I actually got on my trip only to discover that I chucked out the envelope with all my momentos in, when I had a big clear out earlier in the year.
It had been lying around for a couple of years and I thought "one less thing for the kids to have to deal with".
I was planning on writing some more posts and using the contents of my envelope to remind me where everything was. Why of why did I decide to have a clear out? 😢
Maybe there's only so many ways to design the look of a home, but these have a more western look to them than I would have imagined, even if the building material is different and varies. In this case, you still have a rectangular shape with a triangular roof.
So, I'm wondering if there's actually some western influence in these kinds of building, or if it's just the faster, easier, simpler and cheaper way to get a home constructed. I say this because the architecture I'm seeing in other parts of Kathmandu seem more in line with an eastern look, if any of this is making any sense. :)
Yep. it makes perfect sense @glenalbrethsen. I had similar thoughts but I don't know the answers. They were also bigger on the whole, than I was expecting. 😊