Selection of surveyed locations in the Himalayas and on the Tibetan Plateau, 2014

The Research Project aims to capture the richness and diversity of Tibetan vernacular farmhouse architecture by documenting selected buildings in a cross-country approach. Typical buildings in Tibetan Autonomous Region (China), Qinghai and Sichuan Provinces of China, Nepal, Ladakh (India), and Bhutan are surveyed and documented.

Bhutan, Bumthang

Bumthang Dzongkhag, Uraབུམ་ཐང་རྫོང་ཁག།

Houses in Ura are built from local stone with the prominent wooden facade element, called rabsel, facing east towards the valley floor. Foundations vary in depth between 30 cm and two meters depending on soil conditions. Their width is always 80 cm. Traditionally, the big stones used for the foundations were dug out locally, today they are brought by a tractor from a quarry in Pangkhar Village, located in 15 min walking distance from Ura.

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Bhutan, Bumthang

Bhutan, Phobjikha

Wangdue Phodrang Dzongkha, Phobjikha, Ütsaདབང་འདུས་ཕོ་བྲང་རྫོང་ཁག་ཕོབ་སྦྱིས་ཁ།

The village of Eutsa is located in the wide valley of Pobjikha. The valley bottom consists of a wide alpine wetland at 3,000 m with a narrow stream meandering through the open grassland. On the adjacent slopes, there are small villages, scattered farm houses and farmlands, where mostly potatoes and turnip are being cultivated.

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Bhutan, Phobjikha

Kham, Kandze

Kandze (Garze, Ganzi), Sushide Village
ཁམས་དཀར་མཛེས་སུ˙ཤེས་དེག།

The walls of the building are constructed with rammed earth. Rammed earth construction is a strong feature of the region’ s architecture. Carpentry has a distinct local style as nearby forests provide good quality timbers.
The local village houses consist mainly of two stories.

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Kham, Kandze

Kham, Lithang

Lithang Dzong, Sumdu Villageཁམས་ལི་ཐང་རྫོང་གསུམ་འངུས་ཤང།

The building is constructed in a very distinct style of stone masonry. Large trapezoidal stones are laid at the corners. The round stones are carefully chosen and laid in regular courses, small stones alternating larger stones.

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Kham, Lithang

Kongpo, Tashi Gang

Kongpo, Tashi Gang Villageདབུས་ཀོང་བཀྲ་ཤིས་སྒ་ང།

The climate in the area is dramatically different from the Tibetan Plateau. Affected by the summer monsoon from Assam the area receives a lot of rainfall. Therefore a pitched roof construction has developed in the area.

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Kongpo, Tashi Gang

Ladakh, Nurla

Leh District, Khalsi Tahsil, Farkethang Villageལ་དྭགས།

The houses of Farkethang stand at the verge between the irrigated land and the desert landscape. The long channels ferry the water from a narrow branch of the Indus River to the village where it is distributed by finely tuned small channels. The small village appears as a green oasis in the barren landscape.

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Ladakh, Nurla

Ü, Lhoka

Lhoka Prefecture, Mendru Khang Villageདབུས་ལྷོ་ཁ་ས་ཁུལ་ཆིམ་ཤའ་ཁང།

The building represents a typical farmers building of the last decades. It is estimated to be around 50 years old and it one of the oldest residential buildings that can be found in the area. The lower level of the building is constructed of stones.

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Ü, Lhoka