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high altitude houses. vernacular architecture of ladakh • edoardo paolo ferrari
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Houses among the valley at Pipiting
in which people live in winter and the other where they shift during summer, closer to the fields. Even in Leh, some people had summer and winter houses. What is now called ‘The Old Town’ (in Leh) is a more favourable area in winter. This settlement was built below the Leh Palace, which is the reason why the village was actually founded, and it allowed people to live in a cosier district of houses with their dwelling being on one side against the mountain, more protected from the wind13. The Leh valley, with the fields and more water streams, was a better summer counterpart to the terraced settlement. Today, during the long winter months, many Ladakhis leave their houses to move to other parts of India. Winter ‘migration’ is also fostered by the several job opportunities offered elsewhere in India. Road problems create a winter-long obstacle, making it impossible to reach Ladakh from the outside and vice versa. Especially in areas where snowfall is heavy, wooden/earth roofs can get damaged if not kept clean on a regular basis. Where people leave their houses for many months during winter, the roofs cannot be maintained on a regular base. For this, the risk of damage and/or collapse could be a possible reason for shifting to reinforced concrete structures or simply choosing concrete finishing for the roofs. When people were mainly farmers the main activities stopped during the winter months. The families have meetings throughout the winter, inviting their relatives to their homes. This long period of the year is a great moment for celebrations, centred on gatherings in houses especially during the time of the Ladakhi new year: losar (lo-gsar). 13
Ivi, p. 23.