Cultural geography of vernacular architecture in a cross-cultural context: houses of the Dai ethnic minority in South China

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the cultural geography of the vernacular architecture of the Dai ethnic minority in Dehong Prefecture, located on the border between southern China and Myanmar. The objectives of the study include: exploring the characteristics and distributions of built forms, identifying the hybridization of ideal Dai pattern-built forms in Southeast Asia caused by the influence of the Han Chinese, and discussing the continuity and change of vernacular architecture in a cross-cultural context. The field methods include a physical survey of the cultural geography of Dai living as rice farmers in lowland geographies, a detailed investigation of their houses, and in-depth interviews with local informants about the dynamics of changes under socio-political constraints in China. The findings provide insight and knowledge about the cultural geography of architecture in a cross-cultural context.

KEYWORDS:

• Vernacular architecture
• cultural geography
• cross-culture
• Dai
• Dehong
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Rawiwan Oranratmanee is an associate Professor in architecture specializing in the subject of cultural landscape and vernacular architecture in southeast Asia as well as those in China and India.

Notes

1 Dai is the name usually used in China; elsewhere the term Tai is more commonly found.

2 The word “tai” when pronounced with higher tone means lower. In a geographical sense, tai designates the area downstream of the river valley, being an antonym to “nue”, meaning higher or upstream.

3 The prefecture was established by Socialist China during the revolution in the 1950s. The name of the prefecture incorporates the names of two ethnic minorities, the Dai and the Jingpo, who share the same prefecture but live separately. The Dai live in the lowlands while the Jingpo and other smaller groups of hill tribes live in the highlands.

4 Wet-rice cultivation is a traditional method of growing rice in water during its early stage of cultivation. It is an ancient peasant system with archaeological evidence and historic.

5 For more on the concept of baan-muang, see Oranratmanee (2018b) and Aungtun (2009).

6 Normative household comprises two to three generations living together including a father, a mother, one or two children, and sometimes, grandfather, grandmother, nephew, and/or niece.

7 Type D exhibits some spatial extension of C by extending the back-sided area.

8 Preceding studies have noted that most river valleys in the region appear to similarly align in a north-south orientation.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Thailand Research Fund [grant number RSA5980063].