Diaolou building skills (Qiang Diaolou building skills)

The name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Diaolou building techniques (Qiang Diaolou building techniques)

Applicant: Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province

Item No.: 969

Project No.: VIII - 186

Time of publication: 2011 (the third batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Sichuan Province

Type: Extension Project

Applicant: Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province

Protected by: Wenchuan Cultural Center

Brief introduction of Diaolou construction technology (Qiang Diaolou construction technology)

Applicant: Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province

The Qiang people, located in the Northwest Plateau of Sichuan Province, have created a special spatial form Diaolou under their historical background, thus enjoying the reputation of "the country of thousands of Diaolou". Diaolou, which is called "qionglong" in Qiang language, is recorded in the biography of Southwest Yi in the book of the later Han Dynasty. In the past, the most important function of Qiang watchtowers was to look out, defend and convey information, as well as to symbolize status and status; now they are mainly used for living and storage.

The shape of the watchtower of Qiang nationality has four corners, six corners, eight corners and many corners. The ground floor of each blockhouse is completely closed, and a small door is opened on the second floor. From the second floor, countless rectangular small windows with large inside and small outside are opened around for ventilation, lookout and shooting. The single wooden ladder which can be extracted at any time is used to go up and down between each floor. The main building materials of Qiang watchtowers in Wenchuan are rubble and yellow mud. The existing watchtowers are mainly stone watchtowers. Before construction, site selection and construction method should be carried out by "Shibi", and design should be carried out according to the terrain. Before the construction, the craftsman processes the rubble with a hammer, and then according to the shape and size of the watchtower, first chisel the corresponding foundation pit at the construction site until it reaches the hard rock, and then use the shovel plate to spread the mixed yellow mud on the beaten rubble, and then build and press layers by layers to make the mud and stone bond. The inner side of the wall is still perpendicular to the ground, the outer side is slightly inclined, and the center of gravity is inward, forming a centripetal force, which makes the watchtower firm and stable. Each layer is set up about 20 cm in diameter of wood beams, covered with wood, the same layer. Huangni blockhouses are rammed, only three of them are in buwaqiang village, Wenchuan county (listed as national key cultural relics protection units in 2006), and their construction methods are the same as those of stone blockhouses.

The construction tools of Qiang watchtowers are very simple, mainly hammer and shovel board. Both stone and yellow mud Diaolou have one thing in common, that is, during the whole construction process, there is no drawing, no hanging line, no column support, and it is all based on the experience of craftsmen. This fully shows the superb construction technology of Qiang people.

After hundreds and thousands of years and without any reinforced concrete, the Qiang watchtowers have experienced the Diexi earthquake with M = 7.4 in 1933 and the Wenchuan earthquake with M = 8.0 in 2008. Although there are different degrees of damage, most of them are firm and solid, which proves the scientific nature of their construction.