In the dim but cool, airy interior of her 135-year-old home on Indonesia's earthquake-devastated Nias island, housewife Ori Zebua grumbles about the cost of maintaining the ancient building.
Her home, among hundreds of magnificent traditional dwellings remaining on the island, may have survived the deadly 8.7-magnitude quake that rocked Nias last year but has long been prohibitively expensive to care for, she says.
"The light slope of the palm-thatch roof has to be replaced every two years and the steep part about every four years. And this does not come cheap," she says.
Most of the distinctive homes, or omo hada, which are hailed for their ingenious earthquake-proof design, were built more than a century ago on this mainly Christian island where quakes regularly unleash their fury.
The houses are propped on massive tree trunks -- some with girths the size of a man's embrace and the longest some 30m -- and are kept stable with equally huge wooden braces.
Styles differ between the north and south of Nias, an island about the size of Bali and located off Sumatra. The higher the status of the owners, the grander their size and the taller the height of their steep roofs.
"The Nias house has been internationally recognized as a formidable architectural form, well-adapted to a seismic region, as Nias is," says Nataalui Duha, deputy director of the Nias Heritage Museum.
"They are entirely constructed without a single nail yet they are robust," Duha says.
While some 41,000 buildings collapsed or were damaged during the quake on March 28 last year, the omo hada weathered the quake largely intact, although a post-quake assessment is still underway.
"Those that were damaged were already weakened by rotting components, had tilted or had concrete annexes added to them," Duha says.
The quake killed 839 residents on Nias, one of the poorest areas in the region, just three months after the Indian Ocean tsunami smashed into the island, claiming the lives of 140 residents.
Still, last year's temblor was so massive that it still weakened some of the buildings, Duha says, which are already groaning under decades of heavy use in the tropical climate.
Reconstruction efforts after the catastrophe have so far only slowly inched forward. But the quake's silver lining may be that more funding is provided to repair and maintain the unique traditional homes, says Ahmad Husin Ritonga, from the Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency.
Besides their historical importance, the agency has recognized that the homes may eventually help lure tourists, and bring in much-needed cash to the impoverished island, which also boasts pristine white beaches and one of the world's top surf breaks.
"Tourism can play a large role in the economy of Nias, which has little else to bank on. Assuring the survival of these traditional houses will help give a boost to tourism and consequently, to the economy," Ritonga says.
Completely fixing an ageing home could cost up to 500 million rupiah (US$50,000), an amount well beyond the reach of inhabitants, who mostly live from fishing or agriculture, he says.
Prior to the quake, a foundation provided funds of up to 2 million rupiah to traditional house owners to help with their upkeep.
The agency is due next month to complete a design plan to repair an initial 20 traditional homes and 20 historical sites featuring important stone monuments and relics.
The preservation of the dwellings -- one of which has been cited as a potential World Heritage Site -- is all the more crucial as no more are likely to be built.
"Unfortunately, building such structures is neither affordable nor possible anymore," the museum's Duha says.
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