Villages

Villages in Nepal are vibrant, noisy, and communal places and the social, economic, and political centres of Nepalese life.

Each village is usually made up of a number of different ethnic groups living side by side somewhat harmoniously, and who can trace back their history and relationships within the community for at least several generations.

Often village members are related to each other and to other villages in the region and families often look for marital possibilities for their daughters and sons. Villages are usually spread quite wide and the following graph shows how far villagers must walk to reach ammenities:

Houses in the village are usually constructed from local materials according to the weather; in the south where it is hotter houses are made from mud and straw to cool the inhabitants, and in the colder north houses are constructed with stone and tiled roofs.

Nepalese villages are highly communal with a central seating area under a big tree and a veranda in most houses to enable the villages to meet and talk with each other.

Work in the villages is almost enitrely agricultural and low paid, which is lucky as shopping facilities are usually sparse except when roaming trades people bring items balanced on their heads and backs. Even if a villager had a money, they would not have anywhere or anything to spend it on!

Those who wish to earn money are forced to leave the village and travel to a city or abroad to somewhere like India or the Middle East. This also has major problems for the community as many poorer areas lose all their men and women except for the old and yound.