a glimpse of Himachal rural life - part 2

..continued from a glimpse of Himachal rural life - part 1.

We were at the Jai Shamshar Mahadev Mandir. The structure is a good example of Kath Kuni building made of wood, stone, cement blocks and cement. The entrance doorway is made of solid wooden blocks. The wood used here would be Deodar, the most favored type for temples and homes. Above the doorway is a pair of goat horns and a brass bell.. this is a common feature in temples of Himachal Pradesh. The temple door was ajar but we did not step in. Removing the shoes wouldn't be convenient at that moment. The temple seems old but it has undergone some repair work recently.

The structure is about 30' long and 18' wide. The wooden walls should be a foot thick. On the side is a small platform for visitors to sit. Part of the roof is covered with a thick layer of pine needles (leaves). I'm guessing the inside of the temple to be traditional i.e. the flooring would be cow-dung coated.

In the front yard is this little Nandi looking towards its lord inside the temple. The sculpture is simple, its a symbolic deity. Even the platform is a simple stack of slabs.

My wish to touch a pine cone came true. We found fallen pine cones on the carpet of pine leaves. Rajesh pulled out a seed from one of the cones (see inset). These cones are not used for anything else apart from burning them in stoves.

Close to the temple was a house next to the road. Its roof was in level with the road surface. Its quite common to see such houses on these mountains. I wanted to check out the building closely. A man as standing in the balcony, looking into the distant valley. We got his permission to see the house's exterior.

The structure seems to be 10 to 25 years old. Its built in the traditional style. The quality of construction is questionable. For example, the upper level column do not align with the lower level column. This way the load transfers to the ground is not ideal.

The earthen wall is reinforced by a dry wall made of stone. The dry wall allows breathing. During rains or snowfall, water to pass through it without eroding the dirt. The wall also allows the ground to dry uniformly. Had it been concrete, the effect would be damaging. Hence dry walls and gabion walls work better in hilly places.

The house owner seemed to be have a tight budget. Saying that because only one of three sides has railings. Many of the houses even have walls with window so that the interior space is more and keeps the core of the house warmer.

The ground floor is where fire wood is stocked. Workmanship on this side is slightly better. The layers of wood and stone in the walls is clearly visible under the layer of paint. Weather conditions can be pretty harsh here.. wind, rain, snow.. the house is designed to withstand all that.

The door frame is solid! The threshold is a foot thick, covers the entire width of the building, and it shares at least 25% of the load. Truly a marvelous piece of civil engineering.

Rajesh pointed to be the dirt patch next to the house went into the village. He suggested me to take a tour of the village and he would catch up with me on the lower side where it touched the road. I wish Rajesh had joined but it was okay to go alone.

As soon as I descended the first stretch, I ran into this group of children going home after school. They were shy for a minute or two. I asked them if I could take a picture. They lined up neatly. The girl's uniform pattern is a nice combination. Looks like olive green trousers is boys uniform color. Sweet bunch of kids. I took several shots, they waited patiently until I finished. I told them I wanted to see the village, one of the older boys pointed out to the path.. go down there and turn right. There are lot of dogs in the village, so don't go in. I wasn't sure if it was okay to asked them to guide me. We spoke Hindi, language wasn't an issue so far.

Having rained the previous day, the dirt was still wet and slippery. One part of the path was too wet & steep and no handhold. To add to that there was a tree trunk across the path. One wrong step, I would slip and slide below the trunk. Slowly I managed to cross over. I was at a fork wondering what side to go and there wasn't anyone in sight. Suddenly three kids came down the same path running. Man, these little guys are super! The rest of the kids too had followed them. Nice.

There they are, lined up on the steps of a home. They guided me until the last fork in the path. I said bye to them. Wish I could come back with gifts for them some day.

In this picture there's one traditional house. The house with white walls and green colored corrugated roof is a modern one. People are ready to experiment with new material. The village had several trash bins, separate bins for wet and dry waste I guess.

The path leading down to the main road was a narrow one, fence on one side. A cow appeared in my path. Luckily the cow was calm. Surely it knew I was a stranger but it didn't bother me. I passed by safely, just my arm brushed its plump belly.

This seems to be common area of this village. The fallen tree must be Deodar. Not sure if the tree was aged when it was cut down. The core is hollow, the tree must've been in its last days.

I find this scene serene. Its silent and air is clear. God bless this land.

It was close to 2-30 pm. Rajesh and I decided to head back to the monastery since we had have lunch and catch up with his team at the site. On the way down, we stopped for a cup of tea. We sat in the balcony with a view of the village homes roof tops. 90% of the homes on these mountains are traditional homes. They make do with material available on the mountains except plumbing and electrical material.

Back at Dhagpo Shedrupling Monastery, I had food cooked by the monastery cook. Rice, vegetables and curry. Then a short rest in my room before heading back to the site.

Do check out my account of visit to Shuru Manali.

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