In the forest areas in Eastern or Southern Tibet, the houses are characterized by the local conditions. Making use of the abundant forest resources, the local people build their houses with pure wood structure, earth and wood structure, or stone and wood structure. There are one-storey houses, multi-storeys buildings and even the “elevated” houses that stand on stilts against the mountainside.

The typical ones are those of the Moinba and Lhoba people, who like to live in the houses with a courtyard. Regardless of size or style, the buildings consist of sitting rooms, kitchen, storeroom and livestock room as well as the side corridor and lavatory, and so on. A brazier in the sitting room is used through-out the year for warming and against moisture. The roofs are sloped for better drainage, because here it rains frequently. Wood is used for every part of the house, i. e. the walls, the floors and the interiors. The roofs are certainly wooden, topped by stones so that the roofs would not be taken away by a gale. These are usually the “elevated” houses, which leave enough space between the floors of the sitting rooms and the earth for moisture proofing. Sometimes other materials such as stones are also used in addition to the wood. Many Moinba people like to use the stones to lay the walls to make the house more sturdy. Yet the other parts are still wooden, even wooden rabbets instead of nails are used for connecting two wooden parts. More interesting is that the locks and keys are unexpectedly wooden. Moreover, bamboo and willow are occasionally used for making partition walls.

This kind of predominately wooden house is generally divided into several storeys for different functions: the highest floor for stockpiling firewood; the middle floors for the people; while the lowest floor is reserved for livestock. These houses are usually cube-like, with the east-facing doors, west-facing windows and also balconies for day-lighting and outing.

There is a very special kind of houses in Paggai Village of Bome County. Due to the bad natural conditions, and very limited production terrain, people here have to move a dozen of times within one year. For easier moving, they have created a kind of movable wooden barracks. Before moving they just knock it down, and when arriving at the destination they assemble it again.

As a rare case, people in some areas of Nagri (Ali) Prefecture live in caves. They dig the caves on the cliff, which can stay warm in winter and cool in summer. The caves usually have an area of 4 × 4 square meters, and a height of 2 or more meters. Unlike the arc-like ceilings prevalent in the Loess Plateau of China’s hinterland; the ceilings here are flat. Besides, people here like to build houses to connect the caves instead of just living in caves.