Some Houses of Nepal
Hi Everyone,
Sorry for keeping you all for a very long time to get your desires and wishes be fulfilled about Nepal and its life style.
My previous blog became so personal. This week, I became too busy doing office works.
Even then I was managing time to read the Amy’s blog and comments to my blog. I know its not fair with you all to keep you all waiting.
Thanks Dima for your call, finally you had to push me to write.
This time I have taken the advice of an Indonesian friend, Rianto. I hope it’s a common wish of all.
In the picture we can see huts. Whether it is a hut or a house for us, but it’s a home for them. Home a beautiful home for them.
I would like to go in detail about the construction and the materials used in making these huts. May be for some of you it can be a repetition.
The construction materials used in making them are mud, bamboo sticks, thatch, reed , rice straw , cow dung or buffalo dung and wooden bars (but very few). The wall is made of clay and net of bamboo strips/sticks. In place of bamboo some can use reed also. But bamboo is stronger than reed. The roof is thatched roof. Height is around 2 to 2 and half meters. Wooden doors are used. The doors are so small that when we have to enter into the house we need to bend our back. Windows are also very small which looks like a net made of bamboo sticks. Mixture of mud and cow dung or buffalo dung is used as paint. Dung is used as a binder in the mixture. Mixture of cement and sand is replacing this mixture now a day in modern houses.
Thatched roofs need maintenance every year. In monsoon season, i.e. June-July roofs get rotten due to rain and in windy season particularly in Teri Region (plain area) they are blown away due to strong wind. These types of huts consist of hardly three rooms otherwise there is a big open space; we can call it one room flat in modern house. You might be wondering how a family lives in a one room hut. They cook in one corner and sleep in other corner. Many people are living like this in Nepal. I can’t give you the exact percentage, its round about 10 % but this is what the condition of shelter of poor people in Nepal excluding squatter (homeless and landless) who are other 10 % of population. Sometimes I feel amazed that in this such a big world people are landless and homeless. Don’t you feel sad about it ?
This type of house is more common in Nepal. We can see, though its not that clear it is made of corrugated galvanized steel sheet. But I would like to tell little story about this house. 25 years ago it was a one story house with thatched roof. It was made two stories and roof was with galvanized metal sheet as the earning power increased. Though the metal sheet roof makes the top story too hot during the day time but people prefer it to become free from tension of maintaining the roof every year.
The wall of the house is of clay brick. For plastering mixture of mud and cow/buffalo dung has been used and for painting typical type of mud, the color you can see in the picture, its not white but we call it white mud. The typical Nepal word for this is KAMERO MATO. There is another mud of red color. I couldn’t find the photo. In my village white mud is very much used. In some places of Nepal red mud is used more that white mud. It’s because of their availability.
Now this house is same as above one, the difference in it is the plaster with mixture of cement and sand. The paint is the modern paint. It seems like retrofit in old technology to make some changes.
We can see how the changes have been taking place. We can also analyze how changes in economy bring changes in life style of people.
The house below is a modern type of house. Now a day in urban area you can see these types of houses except in some area which are stated as heritage area.
Almost everybody in Nepal have now a dream to have a concrete building with at least 4 rooms.
How a society is changing day by day.
We can see in this village the most common type of house and the distances of house with neighboring house in the village.
Some More photos:
Condition of house due to rain
Mustard flower
Paddy Field
Some of the flowers from Nepal.
I don't know the name of all the flowers in engslish. I hope you will help me out.
Your comments, corrections and suggestions are very very welcome ! It will be a great assest for me.
Have a nice day !
Comments
Hello Kiran! Nice to meet you! We had to wait a week for your next entry but it was worth it for the interesting topic and beautiful pictures. Thanks. I like the photo of mustard flowers very much. This spectacular scenery is similar to the blooming rape fields or to the blooming sunflower fields in spring here in Slovakia. Kiran, could you tell us about the clothing habit in Nepal. I am really into it. We do not wear national costumes unless it is a very special occasion. How about you? Do you wear traditional dresses? What do you prefer to wear in your everyday life? I am looking forward to your next post. Best wishes,
Hi Kiran! We waited long for new information about your mysterious country. However, the look at the topic you have choosen was interesting and useful. Flowers and sceneries are beautiful. Without your help I could hardly connect such concerte buildings with your land. That was last Friday only I could see a french docummentary about traditional nepalese natur healing remedies. Everything really fascinating and I wish to get to know more from your point of view.
Hi Kiran, It was great to see some pictures of your country. And what lovely flowers you have there. I'm afraid I can't help you with the names. I don't know them even in my own language. Your description of the way the houses are built was very instructive and clear. Do you have experience in this area? Well, I hope to hear more from you soon. See you later.
Hi, Kiran, how are you? I think your pictures amazing! Nepal is a beautiful place! I started here in BBC to learn English. Sorry to my erros in the language, ok? My English is very bad, but I want improve more! Congratulations! Our country is special! Kisses, Veronica.
Hi Kiran thanks for your extend explanation about the houses in your amazing country. It isn't enough different in my country. What about Tibet? is it your neighbour country?, excuseme I don't have map right now. the best wishes
Hello Kiran It is true we had to wait, but your post was a good reward for it. Of course I'm worried about homeless. In fact, in my country there are some people, even children, who doesn´t have a home. There is a public-private programa called "Un Techo para Chile" or "a Roof for Chile", that built basic houses for those families for few money (80 US dollars). The rest is paid for the program. Congratulations for the beautifull pictures. The buterfly seems as those who are common in our gardens in spring. Good Bye.
I have never imagined such beautiful houses and nature in Nepal. I wonder if most of Nepal is green and mountainous. Saudi Arabia is mostly desert(40-60%). However, we have coasts on the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea, and mountains in the southwest of Saudi Arabia bordering Yemen.
Hi Kiran, Wonderful pictures! I find it very interesting your explanations about the building of huts and houses. The flowers are amazing however since I don't have green fingers I can't name them. Have a nice weekend. See you, Cris
Today, become membership team. I'm happy learner english language. My english is bad, but will to learn. Your picture were beautiful and your country is charming. You are architect? Sorry to my mistakes. Have a nice week
Hello Kiran! I saw in your writing some thing famila in my country - Vietnam. Maybe because our countries in the tropical area. Flowers, the material making house...Your english is too good. I hope in your next entry, i could find more information about your country cultural, brief history... Good luck to you and also a little bit about your family.
Hi Kiran! It´s really nice to hear from you again :-). All the pictures are really amazing. BEst wishes, Ana Paula.
Dear Karan, well done for posting such interesting blog,but suggest to blog as much as you can, because you have just one month chance Best wish
Hi Kiran, I agree with you. It's very sad to think that some people have no roofs under which they should leave. Mostly, it is the fault of the governments, I beleve. Any way, many thanks for the useful and interesting information about the different types of houses in Nepal, and VOW! what a difference, painting can bring to the appearance of houses. The concrete houses are very beautiful, but aren't the ones that are made of clay and dung cooler in Summer? The flowers are also very beautiful. They remind me of Shiraz,one of the Cities in Iran, with its colorful, various kinds of flowers. Thanks again for the comments and the pictures, TC
Hi Kiran You choosed is an intersting topic. Every culture or every country has own architecture style. What a sad Everywhere has been changing very fast, stylish ones or old ones has been disappearing all over the world like Turkiye. There were many stone houses in my town but now they are as few as you can count. Insead of them, there are three or four floor apartments. People demands decide these changes. We turn into people who always miss the past.Unfortunately we are not many. Another problem, homeless, children living on the street, hungry people...Problems are the same all over the world. Turkish government try to take some measures to prevent as well non goverment organizations but not enough.By the way, What happened about interwiev? Take care.
Finally....what a beautiful country!!. I thought that you don't send anything after the interview. I am glad to be wrong...:). It's beyond my expectation to see such as wonderful pictures of Nepal. you said that one of the material to build a huts is Cow or buffalo dung...I saw about it in National Geographyc movie but it was in India. Looking forward to read your next post....
Hi Kiran, good to read you again. Nice photos. About the flowers I think that the first ones are: rose, daisy and hibiscus. We will need help of the other people in this community to know if it is correct and if someone is expert in flowers, find out the others.
Hi Kiran! I like the photos of flowers very much. Those flowers can be found here in our country. As Beatriz from Uruguay and Amy have named some of them, I think I can add one more. The flower next to the last is poinsettia (I just found the name in Wikipedia) ^_^. The houses in Nepal look so familiar to me though I have never been to your country. It's very nice to know about them. I look forward to reading more from you. Best wishes.
Hi Kiran, well-done. you've written a very good and informative description about your country. Flowers photos are very beautiful like you. I was enjoying while reading your blog... keep it up....i will wait for your next post....bye for now...
How beautiful of the village’s scenery and these flowers, I like these very much, and read you article made me feeling so good, let me have the first image of you country, hopefully, you can write more articles to show us the culture of Nepal.
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