House at Tsuk

Tsuk village lies on the banks of the Kali Gandaki river, the immense torrent which rushes southward between the towering, 26,000 feet plus peaks of Dhaulagiri and Annapurna and whose dark and dangerous valley has been a major Trans-Himalayan trade route for millennia. Like all of Tsuk, this house is severe and fortress-like, its diminutive windows few, its single doorway small. At ground level special devices symbolically defend its occupants against the lurking spirits and above, on the flat roof beside the firewood, prayer flags snap in the ever-present winds, continually invoking further protection from the many gods of Tibetan Buddhism.