See the beauty of Yunnan folk dwellings

A house from Yunnan Province moves to West Virginia. [Photo/China Folk House]

Like magic, a house near the Lancang River in Yunnan province was “moved" intact to the American woods.

This folk dwelling, a mixture of architecture elements of Tibetan, Naxi, Bai and Han people, seems plain but in fact, extraordinary. An American high school teacher John Flower discovered this house. So he and his students took the house apart plank by plank, packed every single piece, shipped them all the way to America, and reconstructed the house in West Virginia.

  

The building team reconstructs the Chinese dewelling with the original materials from Yunnan. [Photo/China Folk House]

Flower then established the China Folk House Non-Profit Project in the United States, which allowed American students to build houses with traditional Chinese tenon structures and learn about Chinese culture.

    

John Flower and his students stand in front of the rebuilt house. [Photo/China Folk House]

On Nov.3, Flower, as well as his students, organized the "Yunnan Traditional Architecture: Panel Discussion" online, in collaboration with Kunming University of Science and Technology and the Linden Centre in Dali. Many experts from Washington, Kunming, and Dali shared their knowledge of traditional architecture at the seminar.

Here are the highlights of the seminar. Let's take a look at the architectural styles of Dali, Lijiang, and Shangri-La.

"3 rooms fronting one wall" is typical of Bai dwellings in Dali. The Bai houses are built out of stone and wood. They feature blue bricks, white walls, cornices and arches. The houses look dignified and generous. They are richly decorated. Walls of each house are painted with fine strokes. The paintings are about typical Dali sights.

 

For thousands of years, the Naxi houses in Lijiang are built near hills and rivers. They have styles of Han, Bai, Tibetan and other houses. Most Naxi buildings have earth walls and tiled roofs. Doors and windows are decorated with wood carvings, showing a plain but elegant style.

 

Diqing folks adapt well to local conditions. They build houses on the snowy plateau. The houses feature a man-nature harmony. The blockhouses are built out of stone and wood. Grand and spacious, they are cold-proof. A house has three floors for reading, living and husbandry. It represents the trinity of heaven, man and nature.