The Sema - Naga Traditional Dwelling

Chief Sakhalu’s Hut
Village Sakhalu Nagami

BUILDING MATERIALS

• The primary construction materials were:
  • TIMBER – for structural elements, like the posts
  • BAMBOO – for walls and other structural elements
  • THATCH – as the roofing material.

• The interior of the Sema house was ordinarily divided into four parts –
  • The Akishekhoh - or front room where the rice pounding tables were kept.
  • The Abidelabo - a narrow room between the Akishekhoh and the Amiphokiboh (hearth room) where the unmarried girls of the household sleep.
  • The Akuzu-Abo - where the head of the family (father) and his wife sleeps.
  • The Azhi-Bo - the liquor room where rice beer is stored in bamboo jugs.

THE AKISHEKHOH

View of the rice pounding table

• This is where they keep the rice pounding tables.
• The Akishekhoh is an apse like addition to the front of the house, semicircular in plan with the eaves brought down to within 3 or 4 feet from the ground.
• Grain collected from the field is stored in large bamboo woven baskets.
• The grain is pounded in the large wooden rice pounding tables (apasü) as and when required.
• The grain is pounded mainly by the women of the household in the mornings or in the evenings, after returning from the fields.
• Animals - dogs, pigs, chicken are also kept here.
• The unmarried boys of the household sleep in here.

THE ABIDELABO

• This is where the unmarried girls of the household sleep.
• Firewood for the fireplace (Amiphokiboh) is also stored in this room.

THE AKÜZÜ - ABO –

• The head of the family - the father , in this case chief of the village and his wife or wives sleep here.
• Inside the Aküzü abo is the Amiphokiboh (hearth room).
• The father’s bed is nearest to the fireplace and the wife’s bed has a separate, smaller fireplace near her bed.

THE AMIPHOKIBOH - ‘Ami’ - fire, ‘Pho’ - smoke, ‘kiboh’- cover

• The fireplace consists of three stones on which a pot can be placed and the fire lit between the stones.
• At the four corners of the fireplace, are four bamboo posts which support a bamboo shelf.  This serves the double purpose of preventing sparks to reach the roof and an excellent place to dry meat or keep utensils.
• The family eats the morning and evening meals around the fireplace.
• In common houses, guests may be entertained here as well.
• Near the fireplace, a large window, almost the size of a door is made - the trash door.
• Waste from the cooking is thrown out this window and collected outside which is cleared regularly.

THE AZHI - BO - Azhi’ - liquor, ‘Bo’ - place or room

• This room is located right at the back of the house.
• Rice beer is stored in liquor vats in this room.
• At the back of the house is a backdoor which usually leads to a small kitchen garden.

Chief Inato’s Hut
Village Lumitsami - Nagaland

PLAN

SECTIONAL - 3D VIEW

SECTION OF THE HUT

The Akishekhoh & Apasü - abo

• The Akishekhoh is usually where the rice pounding tables are kept. 
• In this house, however, the rice pounding tables are kept inside the house, in a room called the apasü – abo  (rice pounding table - room).
• All the functions of the Akishekhoh in Chief Sakhalu’s hut are now shifted to this room.
• The rest of the house is divided into similar divisions as in Chief Sakhalu’s hut.

ORNAMENTATION

• The two bamboos forming the gable were prolonged beyond the roof to form horns called the tenhaku - ki (snail horns).
• These were sometimes decorated with bamboo tassels and imitations of birds.
• The Semas did not decorate their houses like other tribes - or at least not as much.
• They usually adorned their houses with the heads of game or Mithan heads which the owner slaughtered.
• Sometimes, in the chief’s house, human heads were also hung as trophies.

REQUIREMENT vs RESPONSE

• These dwellings, located mainly in the hilly regions came under the Cold and cloudy climatic category.
• The people then, relied mainly on their physical ability to resist the cold.
• The houses did protect them from the cold winds that blew but did little to retain heat within the house. 
• Openings were kept to a minimum to retain as much heat within the house as possible. 
• The fireplace was situated in the living quarters which helped in raising comfort levels within these spaces. 
• The scale of the private spaces was also smaller which meant that a smaller heat source was required to heat the room.
• The sloped roofs worked beautifully in keeping the interiors dry. 
• The steep slope of the roof ensured that no water could seep in through the gaps between the thatch and enter the house.
• The openness of the people did not require such a high degree of privacy. 
• As a result the overall design of the house was kept simple, yet completely functional. 
• It’s function not just extending to it’s activity space relation but it’s social and climatic context.

• These houses existed during the 1915 to the 1920’s.
• British anthropologists first discovered these settlements.
• The exposure of tribal people to civilization subsequent to those initial visits resulted in the rapid disappearance of these traditional systems of construction.
• After independence, such dwellings almost completely disappeared.
• The interest shown toward tradition extends only up to social and cultural levels, leaving architecture in the back seat.
• The only “traditional” architecture considered important to retain, merely as objects of fascination, like those in museums, were the "Morungs".
• "Morungs" were essentially community built structures present in almost every village of different tribes in Nagaland.
• There used to be one such structure for boys and one for girls in each village.
• These buildings were used for community activities.

“Morung” in Philimi built on account of a bad harvest (1916)

• The function of the Morung being the community centre of the village shifted to the Chief’s hut.
• This in turn resulted in the Chief’s hut being the largest of structures in the whole village.
• The size of the chief’s hut emphasized his importance in the village society.

GEOGRAPHICAL SETTING

• Almost all Sema villages existed in the hilly regions in Nagaland.
• The Sema village is usually built either on the summit of a hill or on the shoulder of a spur.
• Down, near the valley of the river Dayang, where the climate is hot, a summit is usually chosen, but in the higher and colder regions, a shoulder below the ridge of a range of hills is a common site for a village.
• All the houses within the same village had the same style.
• This was to ensure that one would immediately be able to identify which tribe a particular village belonged to from a safe distance.
• The Semas were head hunters.
• Captured enemy trespassers would be beheaded and their heads hung up.

LIFESTYLE

• Life revolved around agriculture.
• The majority of each day would be spent in the fields.

Villagers carrying home a load of harvest from the field.

Harvesting in the field.

A woman weaving a shawl

An old woman spinning thread.

By: INATO SEMA

This presentation is a result of the research documentation done by 2nd year students of SPA college on vernacular architecture.