View of Tianluokeng Tulou
No, for once I’m not talking about food. Four Dishes and One Soup
is the name that the Fujian locals give to this cluster of Tulou
buildings that we went to see. Why the name? – because their shapes,
square oval, circular and oval remind the Chinese, ever interested in
food themselves, of dishes gathered on a table for a meal. We had been
driven to the TianLuoKeng Tulou by our extraordinary taxi driver and had
come over the ridge of a range of hills and down a couple of bends
before coming to a viewing platform that gave us this bird’s-eye view of
these exceptional buildings. Having looked down from above, we were
then taken down the hill to have a look inside each of them.
Tulou Construction
They are inward looking collective housing, built on stone
foundations but then made from packed mud. During construction the mud
mixed with glutinous rice is reinforced with bamboo and wood chips.
There are no windows on the outside for the first two floors and they
only have one entrance as they are first and foremost castles, built to
protect the villagers from marauding bandits and wild animals.
Windows at third and fourth floor only
Only one entrance for each building
Each building, be it circular, oval or square is large enough to be lived in by a single clan of Fujian people.
Inside it is like walking into The Globe Theatre in London. In the same way, there is an
Internal wooden structure
internal wooden structure pointing inwards from the mud walls, which
contains the clans’ bedrooms, storage rooms and living quarters in
exactly the same way as the Globe upper stories but in that case they
are for an audience, and similarly the centre of the building is open to
the atmosphere just as at The Globe. Each one also has that quiet and
over-awing atmosphere that The Globe Theatre has, because I assume the
wooden structure absorbs the noise from the inside, as well as it rising
out of the central opening, and the mud walls shelter those inside
from any external noises. The atmosphere was extraordinary.
Entrances to Ground Floor rooms and staircases
Crop Baskets hanging from a balcony
Whilst the wooden structure provides terraced-housing style privacy
the lives of these clans is very much conducted in the centre of the
Tulou for all to see and share. In general the bedrooms are on the top
floors, which are over storage rooms and inside living rooms are on the
lower floors, which have doors to give some protection and privacy. The
upper floors of each house within the community seemed to be reached
via shared staircases – at least that appeared to be the case in the
ones that we could see into. Balconies are used for hanging up crops to
dry or for extra storage room. All the rooms are small – life is mainly
conducted outside.
Dining tables on the raised Dais
Wok burners next to the dais
Different Tulou communities set themselves up in slightly different
ways, but in general they seemed to have their dining tables on the
circular dais that extended out from underneath the wooden structures.
Then, further in towards the centre of the circle were
sinks and ring burners for woks (the electric wok heater above stood
alongside a more modern gas one) and then the centre of the whole
edifice would be used for perhaps animals, more tables and chairs,
drying tables or canopies for storage.
Electric wok Burner
The Kitchen Sink
Canopy used for storage
Tulou One had many canopies in the central circle
Another Tulou had a slightly different set up for its kitchens; and
another one a slightly different placement of kitchens and burners, but
on all on the same principle:
Kitchen Three
Kitchen Two
Four dishes and One Soup From below
Climbing up to one of the dishes
Tulou roof tiling
Wooden external platform
The four dishes and one soup Tulou were built on the side of the hill
and consequently they were all at different levels, which meant that we
could take a closer look at the roof of one of them, which was tiled in
the traditional Chinese manner. At least one of the Tulou had a
platform built just below the top floor outside windows, but I don’t
know what it was for. It didn’t go all the way round the building –
perhaps it was for laying out crops to dry.
Water Stand Pipes
Each Tulou had been modernised with electricity and running water,
but outside or inside each one we found old wells which have now been
put to other uses such as housing goldfish or terrapins and each
building had its own shrine.
Electricity meters
Tulou Well
Shrine
Life seems to be carried on in quite a relaxed way here
Sunday lunch
Tea table with its built-in drain
and they did seem to be taking the gawping tourists in their stride,
selling craft and farm produce, meals and rooms to whoever was
interested. We had to pay at a checkpoint to enter
Bamboo Cloche
this particular region, so I assume they have some deal with the
local tourist board – other clusters of Tulou houses are apparently not
so welcoming. Those owned by the Hakka are more communal, those by the
indigenous Minnan (Fuijainese) people have less communal space with
each house having its own patio. Some 46 of the 3000 Tulou have been
conferred with UNESCO world heritage status and have been built in this
manner for millennia. Life goes on inside much as ever: washing hair,
pulverising nuts, drying animal skins and using bamboo cloches to
protect crops grown around the houses.
Washing Hair
Pulverising Nuts
Drying Animal Skin
Sunday lunch
Tea table with its built-in drain
The structures are warm in winter and cool in summer
and
judging by the debris and people still sitting around on this Sunday
afternoon most had had a good lunch and a refreshing cup of tea.
We moved on from this particular Tulou structure to another Tulou –
this time one that stands alone, but it is the tallest roundhouse in
Fujiang. It has its own gatehouse and 270 rooms.
Yuchang Lou
Gatehouse to Yuchang Lou
Gateway to Yuchang Lou
Inside Yuchang Lou
Temple inside Yuchang Lou
Each room and kitchen on the ground floor apparently has its own
well. The three hundred year old internal wooden structure is bending
one way on the third floor and in the opposite direction on the fifth
floor, redolent of the King’s English bookshop in Canterbury: but what
strikes you most about this building is the sheer size of the place.
You can stay in most of these Tulou for around £10-£16 a night, so our
guidebook says. It says that things are pretty basic with
Furry animal
a bed, a thermos of hot water and a fan provided with the toilets
usually on the outside and gates shutting around 8pm. A local family
will cook you a meal for around around £3. However it does say to bring
a flashlight and bug repellent – judging by what we saw, a rat trap
might be useful as well.
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