My travel timing is usually not very good (I seem to narrowly miss cool festivals and events), but I did happen to be in Lhasa during roof fixing season. The Tibetans have a way of making roofs that I have never seen before or heard of.
It’s an all natural process of packing some sort of dirt and clay to create a hard surface. And by packing, I don’t mean that you just give it a good slap or two; you really pack it on there. The packing is laborious process, and I’ve seen it performed in two ways.
For the smaller tiles, wooden paddles are used to spank the dirt into place.
For the larger roof top surface, rows of people stomp and pound the dirt with long wooden sticks.
As they are pounding away, they are singing and moving back and forth, almost as if they are line dancing. This goes on all day long, so maybe the singing and dancing are a way for them to work hard and get through the day.
I have no idea how long it takes to get the roof ready for the next year, but I saw people working on the same spot for at least three days straight, so I imagine it takes a good long while to get the whole roof of a monastery done.
Discussion
No comments yet.