Homesteading Lessons in the Nepali Jungle

Wolf Price
Aug 27, 2017 · 4 min read
Daughter of the land seller. She is preparing dried bamboo leaf spine to tie up bundles of roof thatch material

My favorite part of the past year was establishing my homestead in the Nepali Jungle. For nature lovers it is truly a paradise. The diversity of people, plants, and animals makes it like a living museum, you can learn about natural and human history everywhere.

Leveling the building site

I had made a routine to visit my friends there and started to plan a project. I knew I wanted to study the plants and people in depth. it had everything I was looking for. especially important to me was the chance to support the social issues. Girls as young as 12 getting married or starting to sell their bodies for food or money. I started working in Nepal so that one day I could reach communities like this and help the people who are facing the worse problems.

A man from the house shifting team weaving together Carrai for walls.

My local friend and teacher with a large property informed me that there was a small property for sale. despite the risks, I decided to invest the $1,200 to buy the land. This kicked off an amazing week where the family that sold their land was breaking down and rebuilding their house on the neighboring land. In this short period of time I learned so much by watching the process they used to rebuild and upgrade their house. The biggest lesson was getting a my own team together to build my first structure: A bamboo yurt with a canvass that was donated from India.

Working on my yurt frame

The first step was leveling the earth. once we had a flat, raised surface to build, we kept it wet and went bamboo hunting. This turned out to be a hardest but most interesting job anytime we wanted to build something. I learned about different places to source bamboo but this time we walked about 1km to a Hindu ashram that sells giant bamboo poles for $2. it’s a big job because you need to chop them down yourself. clean off the branches and carry in back to the work site. we needed 12 total and it was an epic job to cut and carry them all without any cars.

fence reinforcement with Alina and my teacher.

Native building is almost entirely made from these essential parts:

  1. Bamboo (bas) for frames and furniture
  2. cane grass (carrai) for walls and fences.
  3. Grass for the thatch roof (khar)
  4. Cow dung (gober) for plastering the walls and floors.
  5. Wire and string for securing parts together. sometimes natural material but usually not for making the making the work last longer.
the final step of putting the canvass on the frame

The only downside I could see from natural building is that it needs to be replaced every few years. For me I like this because the buildings are extremely modular. In a short period I saw all my friends upgrade or move their buildings to suit new forms and functions.

the neighbors house shifting and upgrading as seen from inside our yurt.
details of the new house made possible by me buying part of his land.
Neighbor’s house with the Carrai walls getting installed.
Wifi installation
Preparing the tree for the bamboo wifi tower..
My team working on a new fence
succesful team

)
Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade