'Bhunga': Kutch's engineering wonder

BHUJ, FEB. 25. The traditional round `bhungas' (mud huts) that stood firm when everything else collapsed around them could once again dot the quake-ravaged Kutch district of Gujarat.

A few magnificent `bhungas' that remained in the marshy Banni area after its residents went in for ``modern'' houses are being looked upon as an ``engineering wonder.''

``The villagers are convinced about going back to the traditional houses,'' says Mr. Balakrishna Doshi, winner of the Agha Khan award for architecture.

What makes the `bhungas' so strong?

``Their circular design and the steely mesh of mud plaster and twigs make them resist any wind pressure and quake,'' Mr. Doshi says. The `bhungas', which ``even a king would envy'' for its elaborate design and artistic elegance, have a light dome- shaped bamboo and thatched roof and a circular wall plastered with mud, twigs and dung.

Their thick walls keep the interior cool when the temperature rises to 46 degrees celsius in summer and warm when it drops to two degrees in winter.

Everything about the `bhungas' is an art. Their outer walls are painted with mud colour motifs by women of the house every year during Diwali and exquisitely carved wood line the inner walls inlaid with mirrors.

In the Ludiya village situated 75 kms from here near the Pakistan border, all of its 12 `bhungas' survived the January 26 tremors when every other house, including the ``modern'' version of the `bhungas', collapsed. The ``modern'' version had given a go by to traditional architecture replacing the twigs of the `babul' trees with stones.

Award-winning craftsman Seva Mayan Marwada's `Bhung', which even boasts of a ``mud fridge'', resembled a fortress among ruins. Seva, who had exhibited his wooden carvings in the Surajkund and Delhi Haat melas, can't remember when his `Bhunga' was built. ``It was built by my great-grandfather,'' he said. Mr. Doshi's team from his `Vastu-Shilpa Foundation' for studies and research in environmental design, which visited the Bunni area at the southern periphery of the great Rann of Kutch, found every `Bhunga' safe. The women of the area are known for their embroidery work, sometimes a single piece of work taking up to a year to complete. The men do wood carving.

``We have to save the Kutchi culture, tradition and life style in the reconstruction,'' said Mr. Doshi from his Ahmedabad home. He has proposed his plan to the HUDCO, NGOs and the State Government to rebuild the traditional houses. ``We are ready to start the work,'' Mr. Doshi.

According to him, the task of building homes for the quake victims in the Bunni area could take three months to a few years. While he awaits Government response, Mr. Doshi is going to work with the Manav Sadhana trust, an NGO, which has adopted the Ludiya village, for building `bhungas' for its people.

- UNI

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