Qiang peoples' stone residence
(sinomaps.com)
The Qiang people are members of one of the most ancient ethic groups in China. Records about them are found in inscriptions on tortoise bones of the Shang Dynasty dating back 3,000 years. Brave and good at fighting, the Qiangs were once powerful in Chinese history.
For self-defense, they built strong and solid blockhouses made of rocks form the mountain on which they lived. The blockhouses in Taoping Stockaded Village of Sichuan Province are now collectively know as the Oriental Castle, a relic of architectural art now under application for inclusion in the list of world cultural heritage sites.
Setting out from Chengdu, Sichuan Province, driving along Minjiang River and passing the ancient town Weizhou, then up along Zagunao River, people can reach Taoping Stockaded Village of the Qiang ethnic group in Lixian County, Aba Prefecture, Sichuan. The stone blockhouses in the village can be seen from afar.
More than 2,000 years ago, the nomadic Qiang people moved from the adjoining area of Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai provinces to the Minjiang River valley in Sichuan and gradually developed from a nomadic to an agricultural society. Intelligent Qiangs made use of the nearby rocks from the mountains to build solid stone residences and blockhouses to defend themselves from invasions by other nationalities. These stone residences and blockhouses were built with neither designs nor blueprints, relying only on experience passed down from ancestors and taught bu senior villagers.
The entire stockaded village of the Qiangs is nearly arranged. Residences and blockhouses are scattered here and there, varying in height and in a pattern of an eight-trigram battle array. Having withstood winds and rains, earthquakes and thunderstorms for hundreds and even thousands of years, they are still in good condition.
The stone blockhouses are connected by complicated winding lanes. They are considered the first curiosity of the Qiang Village.
They are square, hexagonal or octagonal, built with stones stuck together with yellow mud. They were built as garrison areas against the mountain, in perfect harmony with the towering ridges that surround them. The lower floors were used to keep odds and ends and the upper levels for observing and sending signals with wood smoke when there were enemies around.
Localities, layouts, structures and constructions of these blockhouses are so perfect, as if they were gift from God. They are wider at the bottom and narrower at the top. Their exterior walls slant gradually inward from bottom to top but the interior walls are vertically straight, forming a centripetal and cohesive force of strength and stability.
Building such a blockhouse takes years. When the first story was complete, it would be left to endure the wind and rain. Only after it passed the test, could construction of the second story begin. A 12 storied blockhouse took 12 years to finish.
The crisscrossing stone lanes in the village are the second curiosity. Like the cords of a net, they are all connected together, leading everywhere and to every family except for some dead ends at fortresses. Entering these wide and narrow lanes, turning right and left, going up and down, you would feel as if you are in a maze. Without a guild, it will be difficult for you to find a way out.
The water system is another curiosity there. The Qiang people had an outstanding control of water. Walking around in the village, you can hearr the tinkling sound of water but cannot see it. It flows under flagstones outside every household. By opening the flagstones, villagers can get water conveniently for household use or for fire control.
At the upper reaches of streams, the intelligent and industrious Qiang people dammed melted snow for water to power grain mills as well as for the watercourses under the flagstones.
The wooden houses are also a peculiar to the Qiang village. Because these wooded storied houses were built between the stone houses, the whole village is quite picturesque. On the back of all these wooden houses, there are carved patterns, among them crosses. Did they come from the Qiang peoples’ imagination or the influence of Western culture? We still don’t know.
(Source: Women of China English Monthly, February
2005)
