Survey of Structural Members for the Restoration of a Vernacular House Designated as Cultural Heritage in Bhutan
Since 2012, the Tokyo National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (TOBUNKEN) has been continuously engaged in research on vernacular houses in Bhutan, in collaboration with the Department of Culture and Dzongkha Development (DCDD), Ministry of Home Affairs, Royal Government of Bhutan. The DCDD promotes a policy of preserving and utilizing vernacular houses by integrating them into the legal protecting framework of cultural heritage, while TOBUNKEN supports the initiative from academic and technical aspects.
The Lham Pelzom house, located in Kabesa near the capital of Thimphu, is considered the oldest among about eighty vernacular houses that we have surveyed across Bhutan. This house is enclosed with rammed-earth outer walls that have few openings. Because it has very different characteristics from the current ordinary houses in Bhutan, we assume that it was built at the latest in the 18th century or earlier.
At the time of our initial survey in 2013, this house was already dilapidated. In 2017, the wooden parts, including the roof and floor of the upstairs, completely collapsed. Coping with this situation, the structural members scattered in the house were collected and stored, and a temporary roof was constructed to preserve the remaining structure of the outer walls. During the COVID-19 pandemic we could not conduct on-site activities, and the Bhutan side continued with the procedures to obtain cultural heritage status designation of this building. As a result of those efforts this house was successfully designated as a cultural heritage site in 2023, the first time for a vernacular house.
We dispatched four people, including two TOBUNKEN staff and two external experts from Japan, from August 12 to 23, 2024. The team surveyed the structural members as part of the restoration planning for this vernacular house with local staff, including DCDD officials. Dr. Alejandro Martinez, Associate Professor of Kyoto Institute of Technology, who had previously taken part in storing the members, worked to identify where each member was originally used. Mr. TOBASE Koji, master carpenter and Chairperson of the Japanese Association for the Conservation of Techniques for Traditional Architecture who experienced many restorations of traditional Japanese wooden buildings, examined each member for its reusability and discussed its restoration methodology. Nine Bhutanese master carpenters who are engaged in restoring historical buildings joined the activities. During the surveys, we were visited by H.E Mr. Tshering, Home Minister of Bhutan, and interviewed by the national TV station and a newspaper. This project attracts strong interest in Bhutan. We are continuing to carefully work on the overall restoration plan, considering the maximum conservation of its authenticity, and to support the tasks including the restoration cost calculation for securing the production budget on the DCDD side.
The surveys were conducted with the support of a JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) “Vernacular Stone Masonry Houses of Bhutan: A Study on the Architectural Characteristics and the Suitable Approach for Protection as Cultural Heritage” (Principal Researcher: TOMODA Masahiko).