Stilts 7
“Stilts 7” / Kiunga, Western Province, Papua New Guinea / June 2013: The space below the house on stilts is utilized for various uses, including for hanging laundry, for cooking, and other family activities.
It was in September 2011 when I started the Stilts series which featured houses elevated on unusually high posts. The colored photos I posted back then were those taken along the banks of the Fly River in Kiunga, Western Province, PNG (see links below). Understandably, because of the frequent flooding of the mighty Fly River, houses along its banks have to be elevated to prevent the muddy waters from seeping into the dwelling’s floors.
The muddy road to the upland village in Western Province
Apparently, this is not the only reason for building houses on stilts. During my visit to Western Province in June 2013, we went to an upland village which is obviously not in danger of getting flooded but, there, the houses were also built on very high stilts. In these areas, the main reason for building elevated houses is quite different. Villages are located in the midst of tropical jungles and thus it’s safer to sleep on floors situated high above the ground. The other practical reason of course is work and storage space. The dry area below the sleeping quarters provides a perfect space for cooking and doing other chores, for storing supplies and materials, and, as far as the kids are concerned, for horsing around during monsoon months. I have decided to use sepia for this segment of the stilts series because I feel that these images, even if they were taken just recently, appear to be a throwback to more primitive times.
Related Posts by Shutter Bug:
- Kiunga Market Revisited (travellingartist.wordpress.com)
- Back in Kiunga (travellingartist.wordpress.com)
- Stilts 1
- Stilts 2
- Stilts 3
- Stilts 4
- Stilts 5
- Stilts 6
The drag of endless mental work in a strange land takes its toll. Fatigue can kill so petty escapades provide hopeful deviations from the brewing madness. An aging DSLR keeps good company to a walk around the neighbourhood, a short drive to a scenic place, or a silent recollection in a quiet nook granting that the host community and the elements of nature would allow one a safe passage to solitude and contemplation. Loneliness quickly turns to joy when something exciting gets captured by the cam’s shutter then set free into the laptop’s screen followed by electric words that rush from the fingers to the keyboard in an effort to describe the moment. Alas, the brain is alive once again!
What a feat of engineering too…. gotta make sure it doesn’t fall, or slide away when it floods.
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True. And when you’re living in it, gotta make sure of your steps lest you fall through the flimsy ladder. 🙂
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Wow! This pictures are amazing. Love this type of architecture too, is very interesting.
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Thanks, Virginia.
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