Tujia people's skill of building stilted building

The name of China's national intangible cultural heritage: Construction Techniques of Tujia stilted building

Applicant: Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, Chongqing

Project No.: 1191

Project No.: VIII - 211

Time of publication: 2011 (the third batch)

Category: traditional art

Region: Chongqing

Type: new item

Applicant: Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, Chongqing

Protection unit: Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Center of Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County

Brief introduction of Tujia people's stilted building construction skills:

Applicant: Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, Chongqing

Chongqing stilted building construction technology is a traditional architectural technology which is popular in the main city of Chongqing and some districts and counties. It has a long history and can be traced back to the Eastern Han Dynasty. Most of the buildings were built from the Southern Song Dynasty to the 1930s and 1940s.

The stilted building is built according to local conditions, and its main feature is that the supporting pillars are suspended in the air. Diaojiaolou stands on the flat ground. The half of Diaojiaolou is built on the slope with large inclination. The back half of Diaojiaolou is close to the rock and the front half is supported by wooden columns. The house is built with local abundant wood. The upper and lower levels of house foundations are built on the slope surface. The lower level is erected with longer columns, and the upper level is erected with shorter columns, so that the front half floor is parallel to the back half floor, forming a half side building. Wooden columns, wooden walls and wooden floor slabs. The buildings are all built on stone barriers several meters high, and the house frame is 6-7 meters high. The outermost one of each row of columns is cut from top to bottom to the foundation of the upper house, forming a stilt, hence the name of "Diaojiaolou".

In Shizhu Tujia Autonomous County, Diaojiaolou is widely distributed, especially in Qiyao mountain area, Fangdou mountain area and valley old street. It is also called "Ganlan", "Qianzhu floor type" or "corner building". It is a wonderful work of national architectural technology and an excellent Tujia cultural heritage. The construction technology of Tujia stilted building is scientific, ingenious and reasonable. When building, make full use of local stone, wood materials, cornice angle, wear materials hook heart, firm shockproof. With their wisdom and tools such as axes, saws, ink buckets and chisels, Tujia carpenters meticulously built a solid building with scattered wooden columns, squares and boards. Diaojiaolou has a main room, a wing room or a ground main room, a kitchen and a fire pool. The upper floor is a house, and the lower side of the diaojiaozhu is a pen house and a firewood house.

With the development of society and the change of people's living concept, as well as the transformation of the old city in Chongqing, the continuation of Chongqing stilted building construction technology culture and physical protection are facing extremely severe challenges.