slip form masonry

[Norman Watts <Norman_Watts@zzzzzzz>]

Hi Cathy,

Sorry, I don't have any pictures of the building process per se, but I
can certainly find old slides of the houses for you (I don't do digital
yet), though they wouldn't be optimal for seeing the stonework -rather
the scenery. I've made a few trips to different parts of Nepal and the
objective was always mountaineering, and so I have lots and lots of
pics of peaks, ridges, valleys and gorges, some of people related
things, and almost zero of the people (because I don't feel right
taking pictures  of people). The buildings vary a lot depending on
where you go. Down very low, say in the royal cities like Patan, and
parts of Kathmandu, the buildings date from the middle ages, but much
is covered up. The same is true as you go up through the foothills, but
once you get higher and the wetness of the annual monsoon season gets
to be less the houses are more often "bare" (sometimes with the mud
gone and you can see right through the walls). Here the roofs are flat
whereas down low they have tile. The houses, even in little villages,
are remarkably well built, with plumb, flat walls, straight corners and
stones nicely fitted together. These are ordinary houses. In fancy
places built with larger stone, the blocks are fitted perfectly well
together so you couldn't slide paper between them. I like trekking in,
but I once flew into Lukla (same place Hillary's family crashed and
died while coming to see him) and stayed at a recently built guest
house. The thing looked so nice and well-fitted I thought the stone had
been cut someplace else but they told me it was all done right there by
hand.

n

Norman Watts, Ph. D.
National Institutes of Health
50 South Drive, Rm. 1509
Bethesda, MD 20892-8025
Phone: (301) 402-3418
Fax: (301) 480-7629