the net has no geographic boundaries

[cellio]

Several years ago I wrote an article (for an SCA newsletter) on how to build a yurt (aka ger), the portable Mongolian structure. This article found its way onto the web, so every now and then I receive email with feedback or questions.

The latest such message comes from a school teacher who has been having his seventh-grade class build model yurts every year, and after reading my article he thought "why not a real one?". He was writing to me for advice on using local materials (bamboo) in the construction.

This piqued my curiosity. His domain name ended in ".mm", which is unfamiliar to me. To the Google-mobile, batman!

Ok, a group of seventh-graders in Myanmar might build a bamboo yurt based on my instructions.

I don't know why, but I think this is cool.

Comments

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

And why not? It'd be flexible and strong! :-) That's VERY cool.

[cellio]

It should be flexible and strong, yes. What I'm unsure of is what happens if you drill through bamboo. Does it split? If you can't drill through the pieces, you need to find some other way to attach the pieces of khana (wall) to each other. Assuming you want ot be able to fold it up, you can't just lash 'em together. Or maybe you can with some knot I don't know; I'm hardly an expert. :-) (So I shared my ideas and questions with him, especially that part about not being an expert, and we'll see what happens.)

[tashabear.livejournal.com]

Maybe they could soak it to make it less brittle, and then do what I did, and knot it together using leather lace (overhand knot underneath, pull through, overhand knot on top).

It'll take a while, though, and they'll have to be careful and use clamps while drilling so it doesn't turn, since all the holes have to be in line.

Then again... with it being so light, they could use bamboo strips... and even do the bent-end rafters! Ooh, now I wish I could help.

[cellio]

It'll take a while, though

He's got an entire class of students; opportunities for parallel-processing are good. :-) And yeah, I was thinking that with bamboo especially, they should use lace rather than bolts.

and even do the bent-end rafters!

Do you have a pointer to a description of those that I could share with him? I told him I'd seen other ways to do the rafters that might work better with bamboo than my plans, but I didn't have any specifics to give him.

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

That's /very/ cool. The web really can work to enable communication between the traditionally disconnected. I'd love it if someone on the other side of the world found something I wrote interesting or useful.

[dr4b]

I've never even heard of Myanmar. I feel pretty dumb.

[geekosaur]

Once upon a time it was called Burma.

[nickjong.livejournal.com]

I hereby join the chorus of those thinking this is very cool. :o)

[ealdthryth.livejournal.com]

That's very cool!

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Well, it *is* very cool. :)

[ladydragonfly.livejournal.com]

I shall add my name to the also very cool ;)

[meadhbh-9.livejournal.com]

Wow, that IS really cool... yay you!

[xthlcm.livejournal.com]

I was going to make a tasteless joke about local bamboo and political prisoners in Myanmar. But I won't.

Very, very cool. :)

I had a "gosh, the Internet is pretty frigging cool" moment the other day too. I was sick and bored and surfing Wikipedia. It made me think about when I was a kid. I used to spend rainy days just randomly reading the 23-volume World Book Encyclopedia, jumping across cross-references and soaking up useless facts like an 8-year-old-shaped sponge. I loved that encyclopedia.

I realized that I was doing the exact same thing with Wikipedia, only the information was constantly updated, it was extensively hyperlinked, it was collected and published via a totally organic volunteer process, and my parents didn't pay $500 for it. That pretty much floored me.

[cellio]

That's pretty cool about the Wikipedia. Now that you mention it, I used to browse our encyclopedia in that way when I was a kid, too. Haven't done that on paper in a long time, but hypertext makes browsing very easy.

[peacheater77.livejournal.com]

That's very interesting and cool.

Alex

[lefkowitzga.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. That is so very cool.

I also needed to be told where Myanmar is.

Making a ger

[kiane36.livejournal.com]

How surprising this is! My daughter, 12 year old, is making a model ger as we speak! She is doing a school project (4 month long) on Mongols and one of the pieces of the project is making a ger. I have no idea if we looked at your page or not (we looked at a lot) but it is a small bit synchonicity. You don't happen to have any recipes that are easy to make, with easy to find ingredients, keeps well so that she can share some food from that region? We have searched everywhere for something that will be fun and interesting to share. We both have had fun with this.

We were also briefly in the SCA in Idaho (An Tir) but now that we are in Kansas, the groups are further away so we don't get to participate as much. My kids loved it and I thought it allowed them to practice some very good core values that they learned at home.

Kiane

Re: Making a ger

[cellio]

My daughter, 12 year old, is making a model ger as we speak!

Neat! One of life's little coincidences, I guess. :-)

Food: I don't know; I haven't studied Mongol stuff, but just wanted nice Pennsic accommodations. :-) (I've since moved on from the yurt, by the way.) But we have someone locally who is a laurel in Mongolian stuff, so if you send me email (address in profile) I'll pass it on to her for you. I don't think your daughter will want to make kumiss (fermented mare's milk) for her class-mates, but with luck our laurel can help get her hooked up with food sources.

Sorry to hear that the local SCA is far away from you. Do you still get to go to occasional events, even if you don't have a group to play with more regularly?

Re: Making a ger

[kiane36.livejournal.com]

I don't get a chance to play in the SCA anymore and I miss it very much. I liked to be around people that had the same interests as I did. It was so much fun.

I don't think the fermented mare's milk would go ver very well.....I can't even get her to eat sour cream or yougurt unless I'm sneaky. Picky eaters!

Hopefully, the class will keep you updated as to their progress and will send you a picture of the completed yurt! I think that would be outstanding!