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Abstract
This paper explores the vernacular architecture of the Shan ethnic group in Myanmar within the context of South-east Asian architecture. The purpose is to understand the relationship between the settlement system, village and houses that together form the cultural landscape and architecture of the river valleys of mainland South-east Asia. The fieldwork is comprised of an architectural enquiry through geographic surveys of settlements and measurements of houses, and a social enquiry, including observations and interviews about the social dimensions of architecture. The detailed spatial analysis embraces three tiers, namely settlements, villages and houses, together identifying the characteristics and underlying concepts of Shan architecture, meanwhile deepening the understanding of the holistic relationships between people, ethnicity, geography, social system and the production of dwellings and cultural geographies of South-east Asia.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author expresses the sincere gratitude to the editor and anonymous reviewers of this journal, whose valuable contributions in providing comments and suggestions have helped to improve the paper considerably. Thanks to the National Research Council of Thailand for the research funding, to my students who assisted in data collection and some illustrations and, specifically, to the villagers and local experts in Shan State and Thailand for their kind assistance on site access and interviews during the field studies.
DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
NOTES
Notes
1 Oliver, Encyclopedia Vernacular Architecture, ii.
2 Taylor, “Cultural Landscape and Asia,” 537.
3 Oliver, Built to Meet Needs.
4 Thompson, “In Defence of Southeast Asia.”
5 This idea is recorded in the local myths of several ethnic groups in southern China. Archaeological evidences regarding ancient house forms found in southern China are similar to the tree-house type referred in the mythical stories.
6 Gao, “Dai Vernacular House South China.”
7 Lewis, “Building on Piles.”
8 Fox, “Comparative Perspectives on Austronesian Houses.”
9 Waterson, The Living House; Waterson, “Visual Anthropology.”
10 Schefold, “The Southeast Asian House.”
11 Oranratmanee, Houses of Ethnic Groups in Southeast Asia.
12 Seo, Southeast Asian Houses.
13 Further reading can be found in Domenig, “Timber Orientation in Traditional Architecture.”
14 Schefold, “The Southeast Asian House,” 23.
15 Oranratmanee, Houses of Ethnic Groups in Southeast Asia, 24.
16 Izikowitz and Sorensen, The House in East and Southeast Asia.
17 Funo, Houses in South-East Asia.
18 Ara and Rashid, “Ethnic House Form.”
19 Kubota, Rijal and Takaguchi, Sustainable Houses and Living.
20 Oranratmanee, “Addressing Southeast Asian Vernacular,” 756.
21 Asquith and Vellinga, Vernacular Architecture Twenty-First Century, 1–20.
22 Oranratmanee, Settlements, Villages and Houses in Shan State.
23 Leach, Political Systems of Highland Burma.
24 Hallet, A Thousand Miles on Elephant in Shan State.
25 Milne, Home of an Eastern Clan; Milne, Shans at Home.
26 Poolsuwan, Shan State.
27 Sai Aung Tun, History of Shan State.
28 Lubeigt, “Shan (Burma, E.),” 1059.
29 Clement-Charpentier, “Shan (Thailand, NW.),” 1059–60.
30 Panin, Tai Architecture.
31 Oranratmanee, Patterns of Tai Houses in India.
32 Oranratmanee, Settlements, Villages and Houses in Shan State.
33 Oranratmanee, Dynamic of Vernacular Architecture in Dehong.
34 Witthayasakphan, History of the Great Tai.
35 Dodd, The Tai Race.
36 Santasombat, Lak Chang.
37 Sai Aung Tun, History of Shan State, 26.
38 Turton, “Architectural and Political Space.”
39 Sai Aung Tun, History of Shan State, 26.
40 State in this sense means the feudal states that dated back to the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries.
41 Tambiah, “Classification of Animals in Thailand,” 127–8.
42 Sai Aung Tun, History of Shan State.
43 Nartsupha, The Thai Village Economy.
44 Zhu Liangwen, The Dai, or the Tai and their Architecture, 78–9.
45 Ibid., 77–9.
46 Milne, Shans at Home, 275.
47 Lubeigt, “Shan (Burma, E.),” 1059.
48 Clement-Charpentier, “Shan (Thailand, NW),” 1059–60.
49 Milne, Shans at Home, 276.
50 Wichasin, “Directional References Tai Language,” 116–26.
51 Panin, Tai Architecture, 121, 128.
52 Further reading in Leach, Political Systems of Highland Burma.
53 According to interviews with inhabitants, when an owner of a house dies, one wood stick must be taken out as a symbol of loss. When all sticks are taken out then a house loses its soul and must be demolished. This belief, as it seems, is used as a reminder of the spiritual connection between the inhabitants and their house.
54 Kwan literally means soul, and is related to an animistic belief.
55 When guests or new family members stay overnight inside a house, the occupants must pay respect to and inform the ancestral spirits about their coming.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Rawiwan Oranratmanee
Rawiwan Oranratmanee, Faculty of Architecture, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand [email protected]