The use of mineral based building material in the Himalayas has a long tradition, probably reach-ing back to the first settlements. Use of such material was, and partially still is, deeply anchored as an essential material cultural fingerprint and certainly a manifestation of cultural identity. Mineral building tradition influenced the evolution of certain structural features which were inseparably intermingled with daily life and the structuring of the annual rural working cycle.Different techniques were applied and adjusted to local conditions and needs. Rammed earth structures, adobe bricks, flat roofs, clay plaster, wattle and daub constructions, Tibetan stoves, clay sculptures and pottery are made with locally available resources on a mineral basis. The use of fired bricks in the Himalayas is reserved for the Himalayan border zones while in the Tibetan cultural zone we find fired bricks at only a few historical structures, for example, the Jokhang in Lhasa. Contrary to bricks, kilns for pottery have a long tradition in the Tibetan cultural zone. Within the last years in Ladakh the first known kiln was erected.