CHARACTERIZATION AND PROPOSALS FOR RECOVERY OF TRADITIONAL TAMANG CONSTRUCTION IN NORTHERN NEPAL F. J. Castilla 1, *, J. Agulló 2 , J. Castellote 3 1 Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) Escuela Politécnica. Cuenca 16071. Spain - fcojavier.castilla@uclm.es 2 Universidad Europea (UE) Escuela de Arquitectura, Ingeniería y Diseño C/ Tajo, s/n. Urb. El Bosque 28670 Villaviciosa de Odón (Madrid). Spain - jose.agullo@universidadeuropea.es 3 Castellote + Arquitectos. C/Enrique Larreta 3, Bajo A, 28036 Madrid, Spain - jcdelolmo@castellotearch.com Commission II - WG II/8 KEY WORDS: Nepal, Tamang, Seismic Risk, Stone construction, Timber structures ABSTRACT: This article is the result of the work of four years of field trips (2016-2019) to the village of Gatlang (Nepal) and visits to some of the surrounding villages in the Rasuwa district. This area is mainly inhabited by Tamang, of Buddhist culture and of distant Mongolian origin. The architecture of the Tamang ethnic group is unique although shares some common characteristics with other mountain or isolated architectures around the world. Due to its difficult access and remote location of these communities, the architecture uses mostly local materials (stone and wood). Although this characteristic is common to many other communities of the Himalayan mountain range, even today it is possible to differentiate architectural styles associated with ethnic groups in different regions. The primitive state of these constructions is progressively altered by the inclusion of new materials, especially in areas affected by earthquakes, such as this one, where the urgency and need to guarantee the safety of new constructions has resulted in disparate and uncontrolled reconstructions. The article aims to identify and analyze Tamang vernacular architecture constructions, their invariants, and gain in-depth knowledge of their general behavior when faced with environmental factors, as well as conservation possibilities. The final objective is to promote the recovery of this architecture, guaranteeing its structural safety and adapting it to the current habitability needs, but trying to maintain the typological invariants that preserve its value as a set of historical, cultural and tourist interests, which form part of the Tamang Heritage Trail. * Corresponding author 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Project context In this paper, we describe and make an analysis of the construction and invariants of the houses and architectural elements associated with the Tamang culture, their general behavior to face environmental factors and an approach to their seismic behavior, since many of them were destroyed partially or totally during the earthquake of May 2015. It is the result of four years of field trips (2016-2019) to the town of Gatlang (Nepal) and some of the surrounding villages in the Rasuwa district, situated about 150km North of the capital Kathmandu and thanks to the NGO-Orche. The population of Nepal is divided by ethnic groups spread out over different districts, Rasuwa hosts mostly the Tamang, of Buddhist culture and far Mongolian origin, as other ethnic groups of the mountains such as the Gurung (Annapurna area) or the Sherpas (Everest area). The architecture of the Tamang ethnic group is very unique and is quite similar to the architecture of the Sierra Negra de Guadalajara (Spain). Due to the difficulty of access and degree of isolation of these communities, the architecture uses mostly local materials (stone and wood) as it happened for many years in the farthest places of the mountains of the Iberian Peninsula. This characteristic is common to many other communities of the Himalayan mountain range, which allows us to differentiate architectural styles associated with ethnic groups in different regions (Oliver, 2000). The primitive appearance of these constructions is being progressively altered by the inclusion of new materials, especially in areas affected by earthquakes, such as the Himalayan ridge, where the urgency and need to guarantee the safety of new constructions has led to disparate and uncontrolled reconstructions. Moreover, other architectural elements associated with the traditional way of life are also threatened and led to their disappearance due to changes in customs. 1.2 Location: geographic and climatic characteristics Gatlang is located in a mountainous geographical area (between the Kathmandu valley and the high ridges of the Himalayas) at an average height of 2,200m above sea level and according to the Köppen climate classification it belongs to the Dry-inter subtropical highland climate zone (Cwb). The terrain is very hilly with very steep valleys, so the population usually scatter in those more open areas of the rivers or on the sunny slopes or upper parts of the hills. The year is divided into a wet season from June to September, and a dry season from October to June. During the first one, the summer heat in Inland Asia creates a low-pressure zone that attracts the moist air of the Indian Ocean, characterized by the presence of the Monsoon. During the second one, cold temperatures in the vast interior create a high-pressure zone that causes dry air to flow out. Temperatures can reach extreme variations, near to 30ºC, between day and night by this time. Precipitation generally decreases from east to west of the country and the area of Kathmandu receives about 1,400 mm annually. The International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Volume XLIV-M-1-2020, 2020 HERITAGE2020 (3DPast | RISK-Terra) International Conference, 9–12 September 2020, Valencia, Spain This contribution has been peer-reviewed. https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLIV-M-1-2020-115-2020 | © Authors 2020. CC BY 4.0 License. 115