May I ask whether the Miao houses belong to
Most of the Miao people live in mountainous areas, which are "deep and dangerous" and have poor conditions, but many of them also live in the plains between mountains. The Miao people mostly live in groups. According to "History of the Song Dynasty. Biography of Barbarians": "The barbarians are different, and most of them live in valleys and trees." Most of the villages are surrounded by lush forests and bamboos, and the scenery is beautiful. There are many styles of Miao residences. Due to economic, geographical and other conditions, the Miao people in various places not only have different houses built, but their living customs also vary depending on the region or the use of surnames. Understanding the living customs of the Miao people is of positive value for in-depth understanding of the characteristics of the Miao culture.
The Miao houses in southeastern Guizhou, eastern Sichuan, and northern Guangxi include bungalows and buildings. Most of them are tile-roofed houses, but there are also a few thatched houses. Bungalows are generally three-bay, and a few are five-bay. The middle room is the main room, with a shrine for worshiping ancestors. There are bays at both ends, each divided into two rooms at the front and back. The back is the bedroom, and the front is the kitchen, resting and dining area. There is a low building above the bungalow, which is used for storing food. Most of the buildings are two-story, with people living on the upper floor and livestock and sundries on the lower floor. Most of the buildings are built on stilts on the mountainside with a steep slope. The residences of the Miao people in western Hunan and northeastern Guizhou are mostly bungalows. The form and usage are generally similar to the bungalows in southeastern Guizhou. People with good conditions also build additional "side buildings" to serve as kitchens or livestock pens. There are some Miao houses in Wenshan, Yunnan. The walls are often woven with bamboo strips, covered with soil, and the roofs are covered with grass. In some places, due to frequent strong winds, they build bungalows. After covering with grass, they are covered with a layer of soil to prevent them from blowing over. The Miao people in Zhaotong area also build "Chacha Fang". The Miao houses in Hainan Island are long and narrow thatched houses, mostly with three doors. The main door opens in the middle and the eaves are long.
This study mainly focuses on the living customs of the Miao areas (i.e. the eastern dialect areas) in the western Hunan region, which includes northeastern Guizhou, southeastern Chongqing, and southwestern Hubei.
Before liberation, there were four types of houses in the Miao area of western Hunan: tile houses, thatched houses, fir houses, and "人" sheds. According to Shi Qigui's "Field Survey Report on the Miao Nationality in Western Hunan", most thatched houses are erected on three pillars, that is, two long logs are used on the top of the house. Scissor-shaped, mounted on a pillar. Line strips are placed on the scissors rack, and bamboo strips or rattans are tied horizontally to the strips to form a spider web shape and grass is spread between them. The grass used to build the house is mostly yellow thatch, but also straw. The huts are surrounded by bamboo walls, mud, straw, lime, or wooden walls or grass walls to protect them from wind and rain.
The shed with the word "人" is the simplest and does not require craftsmen to build it. As long as the fodder and wood are collected, the posture can be erected. The structural style is sharp at the top and wide at the bottom, forming a "person", hence the name, also called thatched shed. The shed with the character "人" (人) is short and narrow. Except for one door to enter, the rest are closed and have no windows.
The cedar bark houses are mostly found in places where trees are abundant. The houses are named after the cedar bark covers. The cedar bark is wide and long, thin and light, and consists of two layers, the inner and outer layers. It is difficult for rain and snow to penetrate and will not be damaged for a long time.
There were more "thatched houses", "herringbone sheds" and "cedar skin houses" before liberation, but now most of them have been converted to tile-roofed houses. However, modern tile-roofed houses are consistent with ancient houses not only in appearance, but also in the internal structure of the house, except for the internal width and external height. Ancient houses are short and narrow, with a maximum roof ridge of about 5 meters, usually 4 meters. Modern houses are generally about 7 meters high, with a maximum height of 8 meters. The biggest feature of the Miao houses is their wooden structure. Those with good economic conditions also have brick structures, but they are still mostly built outside the wooden structure and try to connect them together. In the case of a three-room house, the wooden pillars are arranged in four rows. Most of the houses are one-story, with the middle column in the middle, followed by two columns, which are called column-free again. The wooden pillars are erected, anti-floor pillows are hung on them, horizontal bars are installed, rafters are nailed, and tiles are covered. Build earthen walls, build stone walls, install wooden boards, or weave bamboo around them.
Miao villages can be divided into three types according to terrain conditions, namely mountain type, waterside type and flat type. The mountain-based villages are built according to the shape of the foothills, and are called "Gao" in Miao language; the waterside-type villages are villages that twist along the water flow, and are called "Jia" in Miao language; the flat-land type villages are villages spread out One end or the middle of Yuping is called "Dong" or "Pai" in Miao language. In addition, with the development of transportation and the rise of towns, the location and orientation of Miao villages have also changed, but they still basically maintain the orientation of facing north and south.
The appearance of Miao houses, whether ancient or modern, has only two forms, one is called full flat style, the other is called nest style, or underturned style.
Full flat style means that the appearance of the house is in a straight shape, that is, the design of the door of the house forms a "one" with the siding on the south side of the house from east to west, with no concave or convex phenomenon in the middle. , the eaves of this kind of house are wider. The main door of this completely flat house is a Liuhe door, that is, there is a side door on the left and right sides of the middle door connected to the middle, and the height and width of the three doors are the same. The middle gate is called "Mingzhu" in Miao language, which means gate. The side gates on the left and right sides of the gate are called "Zhunuo" and "Zhuzui" respectively. There is also a window on both sides of the middle door, and the distance between the windows and the middle door is equal. The window frames can be completely empty, or they can be installed with regular grid patterns to decorate them beautifully.