The bamboo houses of the plains are essentially ground level dwellings, unlike those built on hilly terrain which have floor platforms raised on stilts. the structure of these houses consists of whole bamboo posts embedded vertically in the ground, and located around a raised rectangular platform of earth filling which is rammed hard and plastered with clay. These post may be single whole culms of a fairly large diameter, large wall thickness, and with short internodes. They are effective load-bearing members which resist deflection or bending on loading. Composite posts are also made by lashing together whole culms of a lesser diameter. Beams of whole bamboo culms are placed to link the posts around the perimeter of the rectangle. The commonly used joint in this case is the saddle joint where the top of the post is cut out to form a saddle on which the beam rests and the joint is secured by binding it with bamboo splits, cane splits or lengths of galvanised iron wire. There are many variations of the saddle joint . Tie beams are sometimes added between corresponding sets of posts on the longer sides of the rectangular plan.