It is believed that one needs at least 1/2 inch of earth plaster  in order to reap its health benefit. There are economic, health and ecological benefits of earth plaster, but many urban people are also seeking earth for sake of aesthetics. Mountain soil, especially from base of the mountains are known to have perfect soil for earth architecture as they have good mix of clay, sand and gravels. Kathmandu valley due to rich terrain has many different kinds of soil and thus rich culture of earth structures. Uniquely enough, due to its soil type, adobe structure is only confined to the valley and its immediate proximity. Kathmandu, further over, was also a melting pot of different ancient cultures, thus it also is a repertoire of many different plastering techniques including lime plaster mixed with red brick powder brought by Ranas from Europe and lieun- a technique of plaster created by fermenting rice husk.

Here is one of our ongoing projects in an upscale restaurant in Kathmandu, where we are integrating modern and ancient knowledge to make beautiful earth render. We also believe it is necessary to teach youths the techniques thus we have invited some young volunteers for the project. Please email us if you are interested to join.

Photo: K. Tamang

NEPALI WOMEN HELP REVIVE A DISAPPEARING ARCHITECTURAL ART FORM

By: Mokha master artists Shanti Chaudhari and Khedni Chaudhari, Rotary Club of Itahari Past-President Ramesh Tamraker and Canadian architect Stanley Britton

THE ART

Tharu is the indigenous culture of the Terai plains east of the Koshi River between the Himalaya foothills and Nepal’s southeast border with India. Many families are farmers and labourers. Houses are often built of bamboo-lattice with mud-plaster walls. Mokha art is their architectural heritage.

Mokha art’s sculpted bas-relief designs aim to attract visitors and welcome guests. During Tihar, the annual Festival of Lights, Lakshmi, the Hindu Goddess of Wealth, is said to enter these houses and bless the inhabitants. In anticipation the art is revitalised annually.

The wall plasters are layered mixes of mud, cow dung and straw. Read more

This is what the structure mentioned in the previous post looks like.

The legend tells that the old lichhavi king in order to impress the gods challenged himself to build a noble kind movable structure that no one has every dared! He inverted the traditional temple (which usually has shrines on the bottom) and rotated it on its axis. This structure is somewhat of a magnified version of a buddhist prayer wheel. It is also rotated only on a clock wise direction. The rotating wheel will spread the words of wisdom to all the places where the wind blows. The wheel is accompanied by music, and every neighborhood has a peculiar tune. In a particular intersection, no music is played and no wheel is rotated. The wheels and the music (which also can contain silence) are supposed to provoke certain mood and spirit which are different in every neighborhood.

Pictures of Harsar in added in the Gallery section. Please take a look.

Please click on the above picture to see an adobe brickmaker in action. These people have been making bricks for generation. They can make upto 500 bricks a day. Its ironic they make so many sun dried bricks in a day yet its hard to buy the bricks , its because all these bricks are later burnt in a kiln. Since burnt bricks are more expensive then the sun dried bricks (almost 1000% more), brickmakers are reluctant to see them. Sun dried bricks alone, are unfortunately not used in construction anymore. Burnt bricks consume lots of energy to make and obviously during the process they produce lots of smoke. Furthermore, heat retaining capacity of clay die out when they are burnt. So the sun dried bricks are better thermally and ecologically then the burnt bricks.

 A rice field in Harsar, Laos. The elevated bamboo houses are very common in this part of the world. The advantages of elevated houses are protection against flood, snakes, rats. The space in the bottom are also used for storage space.

Here is a picture from our archive during the construction of “Gobidobe” in Mongolia. The modern resources has changed how people move, earlier nomads used to travel via camel. Now people can carry more stuff as they move, which might be a good thing or a bad thing depending on who you ask.

Here is a picture of our low cost, high efficient bamboo treatment plant. Our focus has been, apart from using bamboo as a modern building material, to teach local people, especially women and marginalized people, about our technology so that they can use it themselves. Our patent pending, revolutionary small treatment plant has successfully treated more then 1200 bamboo in a month.

With an incredible resilience Gypsies have travelled all over the world. In Nepal they are known as firantes. They have exquisite stone carving skills. They also work as magicians among other things. They are very versatile and adaptive nomads, no wonder you see from Greece to Kathmandu. Here is an example of a gypsie tent. Vault shaped and indeed made of bamboo.