Cave building techniques

The name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: cave building techniques

Applicant: Pinglu County, Shanxi Province

Item No.: 963

Project No.: VIII - 180

Time of publication: 2008 (second batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Shanxi Province

Type: new item

Applicant: Pinglu County, Shanxi Province

Protected by: Pinglu Cultural Center

Brief introduction to cave building techniques:

Applicant: Pinglu County, Shanxi Province

Cave dwelling is a unique form of dwellings in the Loess Plateau. It is the physical remains of the development and evolution of human early cave dwelling. It is widely distributed in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu and other places. The cave is generally as long as one or two hundred meters, and it is very difficult to seep water. The Loess with strong uprightness provides good natural conditions for the cave. At the same time, dry and less rain, cold winter, less trees and other natural geographical conditions also provide an opportunity for the development and continuation of economical and practical cave building techniques without wood. Under the influence of different natural environment, geomorphic features and local customs, caves have formed various styles.

There are many kinds of caves. According to the layout and structure of buildings, there are Mingzhuang kiln, tukeng kiln, independent cave, cliff cave, sunken cave and so on. Cave building techniques are rich and diverse, such as flat top cave is built on the flat ground with adobe or brick. The cliff type cave is made by cutting the hillside on the plane after the hillside is leveled vertically. The courtyard type cave is more particular. Generally, the pit is dug on the flat ground, about seven meters deep and square around, and then the lower part of the four walls of the pit is chiseled to form the courtyard type quadrangle house.

The caves in Pinglu County, Shanxi Province are called "Diyin (underground) courtyard", also known as "dikengyuan", "Tianjing kiln courtyard", "sunken kiln courtyard", etc. according to different uses, they can be divided into residential kiln, storage kiln, livestock kiln, latrine kiln and Mendong kiln, etc. their construction techniques have a history of more than 4000 years. This ballad vividly describes the characteristics of the cellar yard.

Xifeng District, Qingyang City, Gansu Province, had human activities as far back as the Paleolithic age, with caves as the basic residence. During the Xia and Shang Dynasties, the ancestors dug caves, built villages and cultivated crops here, which was the first of China's agricultural civilization. With the development of history, the population is growing, and there are more and more caves. According to the records of Qingyang local records, in the late 1940s, there were 86491 cave dwellings in the District, with a construction area of 2.46 million square meters, accounting for 88% of the total construction area of rural dwellings; in the late 1960s, there were 86491 cave dwellings in the District, with a construction area of 5.04112 million square meters, accounting for 47% of the total construction area of rural dwellings.

Cave building is beautiful and durable, warm in winter and cool in summer, comfortable and quiet, which can not only save land, protect vegetation, but also save economy and labor. It is a perfect building form adapted to local conditions. In terms of the architectural history, social life history and related folk culture research in Northwest China in the era of agricultural civilization, cave building technology has an irreplaceable important reference value. Since the 1990s, people's lives have been greatly improved, and tile roofed houses have been built. With the influence of modern lifestyle, the process of rural urbanization has accelerated, and the original caves have been abandoned in large quantities, resulting in collapse due to uninhabitation. Some villages even demolish caves and fill pits to make fields. In this situation, the cave building skills may go extinct with the disappearance of the cave. It is an urgent task to select and protect the original cave and to rescue and protect the cave building skills.