Information about diaojiao building

A wooden/bamboo house supported by wooden supports, with ladders extending upward.

Diaojiaolou is a kind of residential building with Dong characteristics. Most of the Dong people's houses living in the mountains are two or three-story verandah-style small buildings. There are stone tablets downstairs, firewood and sundries piled up, and livestock are raised. People live upstairs. The first half of the upstairs is full of light, which is a place for rest or physical labor; The second half is the room, in which there is a "fire pond", which is the location of "ancestors" and also the place for heating and cooking. There is a bedroom on the third floor. Generally, there is one building for each family, and some villages, such as Miaojiang, Bajiang and Linxi in Sanjiang County, Guangxi, are inhabited by many ethnic groups. Houses of the same family are connected together, and the eaves are connected, so we can exchange needed goods and celebrate the festival together. They gathered here to hold a banquet to receive the guests. Dong people in Pingba, such as Lianjiang area in Tianzhu, Xinhuang and Rongjiang counties, are mostly two-story buildings with people living downstairs and food and sundries stored upstairs. There is a "shrine" in the hall, with bedrooms and kitchens on both sides, and pigsty and cowshed behind the side room.

The Dong folk houses in Tongdao, Hunan Province still retain the characteristics of Baiyue nationality's "Ganlan" architecture. Most of them are three or more dry-film wooden buildings, and the bottom floor is mixed with animals such as pigs and cows. People live upstairs, and the wooden building has a corridor extending outward and is decorated with railings. There is a fixed bench beside the railing for people to rest, commonly known as "diaojiao building". This five-or six-story-high wooden structure is rigorous, and it is not allowed to use a nail. The whole system is embedded with tenons and mortises, which shows the superb architectural technology of the Dong people.

Indoor layout, there is a fire pit on the second floor, which is a place for cooking and entertaining guests. They also retained the ancient Vietnamese custom of "sitting and squatting" and several cases of eating with short feet. Sitting on a simple wooden stool, it is difficult to find a tall desk and chair. When cooking, put firewood from the west. Because it is said that the west is the origin of the Dong nationality, and the kindling was brought from the west by ancestors. Dong is a nation that loves beauty. He likes to dress up the environment beautifully, such as the stigma of a house, and likes to carve it into the shape of bamboo. Wooden buildings such as corridors and carved railings. The well in the stockade is made of carved bluestone slabs, and there are some red, white and black flowers and fish in the well. There are old trees in front of and behind the village. Even if the roads in the stockade are paved with bluestones or pebbles, people always make them into various patterns, which are very beautiful, so it is called "Flower Street". Therefore, entering Dongxiang makes people feel like entering a gallery.