What are the architectural features of yurt

Summary: Yurt is a kind of house where Mongolian herders live, suitable for pastoral production and nomadic life. The yurt is spacious and comfortable inside, it is made of special wooden frame as "hana" (fence support of yurt), surrounded by two to three layers of woolen felt, then tied with horsehair or camel's hair twisted into a rope, the top of the "uunai" as a bracket and cover the "bules" to present a canopy-like shape. "The top is supported by the Unai and covered by the Bules, which gives it the shape of a canopy. Next, let's take a detailed look at the architectural features of the yurt! Yurt is the name of Mongolian herdsmen's housing. The "yurt" is the meaning of "home" and "house". Mongolia and other traditional ethnic housing. Anciently known as the dome, also known as felt tents, tents, felt bags and so on. Mongolian language called Geer, Manchu for yurt or Mongolia Bo. Nomadic people to adapt to nomadic life and create this kind of residence, easy to dismantle, easy to nomadic. Since the Xiongnu era has appeared, has been used until now. Yurt is round, around the side walls into several pieces, each piece of 130 to 160 cm high, 230 cm long or so, with strips of wood woven into a net, a few pieces of connection, surrounded by a circle, covered with an umbrella bone-shaped dome, connected with the side walls. The roof of the tent and the four walls were covered or surrounded with felt and fixed with ropes. A wooden frame is left on the southwest wall for installing the door panel, and a round skylight is left on the roof of the tent for lighting, ventilation, and smoke emission, and it is covered with felt at night or in rainy or snowy days. The smallest yurt is more than 300 centimeters in diameter, and the largest can accommodate hundreds of people. The tent of Khan and kings in the era of Mongol Khanate could accommodate 2000 people. There are two kinds of yurts: fixed and traveling. Semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral areas built more fixed, around the earth wall, on the reed grass cover; the latter to oxcart or horse-drawn carts. People's Republic of China *** and after the establishment of the country, the Mongolian settlers increased, only in the nomadic area is still retained yurts, that is, the Mongolian people called "Gers". People have been using yurts since the beginning of the Mongolian race. It has been a long time. However, no one knows exactly when they were first used. Yurts became the daily residence of Mongolians. Most Mongolians are nomadic herders who spend their years herding their goats, sheep, yaks, horses and camels in search of new pastures. Yurts can be packed and carried by a few bactrian camels, transported to the next landing place, and then re-erected.

I. Basic features

1. Cost-effective

The use of steel yurts, first of all, in terms of price comparison, the same diameter size of the yurt, the price of wooden yurts than we use steel yurts more than three times expensive. We use steel pipe all national standard steel pipe after galvanized treatment, never rust.

2. Building and dismantling

In terms of building and installing, any yurt in the past is incomparable, the smallest steel frame yurt, two people can build it in 15 minutes. This feature greatly attracts the businessmen who do night market barbecue, convenient and fast.

3. Good warmth

The yurt is made of four layers of heat preservation, the first layer is rainproof large chemical fiber canvas, this cloth is the best rainproof canvas, anti-aging, long life, the second and the third layer are white heat preservation wool felt and heat insulation layer, so that the yurts can be used throughout the year, and the last is the golden yellow lining of the cloth, after going in to make people feel into a golden palace. The feeling is soothing.

II. Composition of yurt

Yurt is mainly composed of three major parts: frame wood, thatched felt, rope and belt. The production does not use mud and water adobe brick tile, raw materials are not wood or wool.

1.Frame wood

The frame wood of yurt includes the set of nao, uuni, hana and threshold.

2. Nau

The yurt's nau is divided into two types: joint type and rafter type. Requirements for good quality wood, generally made of sandalwood or elm. The difference between the two kinds of nau is: linking nau nau nau cross wood is separated, rafter type nau nau nau is not divided. The joint type set nao has three circles, the outside of the circle has a number of small wooden strips sticking out, used to connect the Uni. This type of nau is connected to the uni. Because it can be divided into two, it is very easy for camels to transport it.

3. Uni

Uni translated as rafters, is the shoulder of the yurt, the upper connection to the set of nao, the lower connection to the hana. Its length, size and thickness to be neatly organized, the same wood requirements, the length of the set of nau to determine the number, but also with the set of nau to change. So that the yurt can shoulder Qi, can be round. Uni is a thin wooden stick, oval or round. The upper end should be inserted or linked to the set of nau, the head must be smooth and slightly curved, otherwise the felt bag is easy to create a skewed tipping. The lower end of the rope buckle, so that the head of the set of Hana together. Thickness to hana decision, generally stuck in hana head of Ya sex fork, the upper end just flush prevail. Uni is generally made of pine or red willow wood.

4. Ha Na

Ha Na bear set of Nao, Uni, the size of the felt bag, at least four, the number of how much by the set of Nao size decision. Hana has three amazing features:

One, it is the scalability. High and low size can be relatively adjustable, unlike the set of nao, Uni as a fixed size. It is generally customary to say how many heads and how many leather pegs of the hana, not a few feet and a few inches. Nails generally have ten nails, eleven nails and so on (refers to a Hanah). The more pegs, the higher the hana erected, the less likely to pull long; the fewer pegs, the lower the hana erected, the greater the likelihood of pulling long. There are generally fourteen, fifteen, sixteen heads. Adding a head, the mesh should be increased, and at the same time, the width of the hana should be increased. This feature gives the possibility to enlarge or reduce the size of the yurt. When making hana, it is the same length and thickness of the willow stick, with equal distance from each other cross up, forming a lot of small parallelogram mesh, at the intersection of the point of the skin nails (camel skin is the best) nailed. In this way, the yurt can be big or small, tall or short. If the yurt is to be built high, the mesh of the hana will be narrow and the diameter of the yurt will be small; if the yurt is to be built short, the mesh of the hana will be wide and the diameter of the yurt will be big. In the rainy season, the yurt should be built higher, and in the windy season, the yurt should be built lower. Mongolians are nomadic in all seasons and don't need to worry about choosing the foundation of the yurt, such a house can't be compared in any way. Due to this characteristic of hana, it is decided that it is easy to load and unload, transport and build.

The second is the huge support. Hana cross out of the yagyu-shaped support mouth, in the upper bearing Unni called head, in the lower contact with the ground called legs, on both sides with other Hana tied mouth called mouth. After the head of the hana evenly bear the gravity from the Unni, through each mesh dispersed and spread down to the hana legs. This is why the finger thick willow stick, can withstand the pressure of two or three thousand pounds of mystery.

Third, is the beautiful appearance. Hana's wood with red willow, light and not folded, hit the eye does not crack, moisture does not go out of shape, the same thickness, equal height, mesh size. This made of felt bag not only meet the mechanical requirements, the shape is also proportional and beautiful.

Hana's curvature should pay special attention to master. Generally have a special tool, the head should be bent inward, the face should be convex outward, the legs should be skimmed inward, the upper half is not more than the lower half to straighten some. This will stabilize the Uni, make the bag shape round, and facilitate the use of three hoops around the rope.

5. Felt door

Hana stand up, after the mesh size adjustment, the height of Haana is the height of the door frame. The door is determined by the frame. Therefore, the door of the yurt can not be too high, so people have to bend down to enter. The felt door should be hung outside.

6. Pillar

The yurt has eight hanas on the top pillar. The yurt is too big, the weight increases, and windy days will make part of the hanau bend. Connected set nau more often encountered this situation. Eight - ten hana yurt to use four pillars. Yurt, there is a circle around the fire support of the wooden frame, in its corners of the hole, used to insert the foot of the pillar. The other end of the pillar, support in the set of nau on the wood tied. Pillars have round, square, six-sided, eight-sided, etc.. Pillar on the pattern of dragons, phoenixes, water, clouds, a variety of patterns. The king can generally only use the dragon pattern.

7. Cutting

Composed of top felt, roof, perimeter felt, outer cover, felt door, felt door head, felt wall root, felt curtain, etc..

8. Top Felt

The top felt is the finial of the yurt, which is always valued. The top felt is square, the corners should be decorated with bands, it has the role of regulating the air old and new, warm and cold in the bag, light intensity. The size of the top felt to the length of the square diagonal decision. Cutting, to set nao horizontal wood in the middle of the starting point, to both sides of the first one to come to the amount of the four sides to be camel tipped hair twisted line dazzle, four sides and corners of the nano a variety of patterns, or with the horsehair horsetail rope two and sewed on the four sides, four corners nailed to the band.

9.roof

The roof is the part of the yurt that covers the urni. Each half of it is like a fan shape, and usually consists of three to four layers of felt. The inner layer is called its buge or its day buge. To the center of the set of nao to hanatou (half of the cross wood plus uuni) distance for the radius, painted felt for the top of the lapel, to half of the cross wood painted part of the top of the collar, the middle of the equivalent of the set of nao a big circle digging, the top of the cut out. When cutting the collar, it is forbidden to show the head of the Unani. The production of thatched felt is based on the auspicious day. Cutting time, are divided into two pieces before and after the articulation of the place is not exactly aligned, must be staggered to cut. This is to prevent rain, wind and dust from pouring in. The inner layer of thatch felt must be wrapped up where the hana and urni feet meet, so that the outer felt will not be so tight, while also keeping the appearance of the yurt intact.

After the top is cut, the outside layer is to be hemmed and crimped around the perimeter. The flap should be hemmed four fingers wide and the collar three fingers wide. The straight part where the two pieces meet should also be hemmed. This will hold the felt edges firmly in place and look better at the same time.

10.Felt Surrounding

The part of the felt surrounding the hanaf is called the surrounding felt. A typical yurt has four felts. Inside and outside three layers, the inner layer of felt is called hanabuki, and the felt is rectangular in shape.

Tailor the felt, than the hana to be higher than a first. The collar of the felt should be left with a drawstring and worn with straps. There are also strings on the legs. The outer part of the felt that is exposed should be edged and striped. Where the north-east felt meets the east crosspiece, a press strip is used. The strips are pressed on top of the unstripped felt. The flaps of the felt are not crimped and are not edged.

11.Outer cover

The outer cover is called Hultuzhig in Mongolian, it is the part of thatched roof, which is the decoration of the yurt and the symbol of rank.

The collar of the tailor's hulertuzhig is exactly the same size as the outer ring of the overnor. The legs of the hulertuzhig are four in number and are on a par with the legs of the uni. The lapel of the outer cover is much embellished with straps. Its collar and lapel are to be edged. There are cloud patterns, lotus flowers, and auspicious motifs, and the embroidery is very beautiful. The origin of Huler Tuzhig is very early, once upon a time the general family have, and only later became the patent of the noble lamas.

Door, originally refers to the felt door, with three or four layers of felt into. Length and width with the outside of the door frame to measure. The four sides of the double side of the Na, with a variety of patterns. Ordinary door more white, blue edge, there are also red edge. The top edge is hung over the door head. The space between the door head and the top is to be blocked with a strip of felt with three tongues (three strips of felt projecting out), which are also to be edged and nabbed with patterns.

12. Strap

The function of the yurt's strap, perimeter rope, pressure rope, bundling rope, and falling rope is: to keep the shape of the yurt, to prevent the hanas from blowing outward, and to keep the roof and the perimeter felt from sliding down, and lifting up in the wind. (It can ensure the safety of the people in it) In short, it has a great relationship to keep the yurt firm and firm and prolong its life.

13. Rope

Rope is a rope around the bundle of hana, made of horsehair and horse tail. It is divided into an inner rope and an outer rope. Horsehair horse tail rolled into six thin strands, three left and three right into a rope, and then two, four, six side by side and sewed into a flat. The advantage of this kind of rope is that it can eat the strength, not stretch. Inside the rope is the yurt stand, in the bare hana outside the center of the bundle around a hair rope. The pressure of the hana is very high, so the quality of the inner rope must be very strong. If the inner rope is broken or not tightened, the hana will be pushed outward, and the yurt will be in danger of collapsing if the hana sinks. The outer rope is bundled outside the felt, divided into upper, middle and lower three. The color of the rope is very good, and the rope is made of flowers. The outer rope not only prevents the hana from bulging out, but also prevents the felt from sliding down.

14. Pressure rope

Pressing rope is also called belt, divided into inner pressure rope and outer pressure rope. Standing wood, the naked Unani horizontal bundled a circle of rope called the pressure rope. Inside the pressure rope yurt has four or six, also with horsehair and horse tail rolled into a finer. These pressure ropes and Uni pressure rope as thick and thin, to prevent set Nao sagging or upward, is the top of the yurt to maintain the original shape.

The outer pressure rope is divided into ordinary eight pressure rope, network tape and outer cover tape three kinds. Ordinary compression ropes are thicker than inner compression ropes, and outer compression ropes are used on the outside of thatched felt. There are four in the front and four in the back. The webbing straps, unlike the ordinary pressing cords, are set over the top flap and hang down like a tassel from around the bag. Especially, the top flap is made more delicately, and it hangs down and is sewn on the felt. The outer cover strap is only for yurts with outer cover. The yurt with outer cover does not need other outer pressure rope, but the outer cover itself plays the role of pressure rope on the top of the yurt. Instead of thatching felt, it is more accurate to say that the outer cover is a pressure rope. Outer cover feet, collar nailed on the band, the top of the flap bundle pressure more appropriate, the wind can not blow up.

15. Bundle rope rope

Bundle rope is the mouth of two adjacent pieces of Hana tied together to make it a whole thin rope, with the camel's knees on the hair and horsehair and horse tail rolled into. The pendant rope is the rope that is pulled down at the highest point of the set of hanau. The Mongols attach great importance to this rope, which is made from the hair on the knees of the camel and the mane and tail of the stallion. The rope is pulled tight when the wind picks up to prevent it from coming in and blowing the felt away.

16. Haya Buqi

Haya Buqi is the part of the felt that is closed by turning the felt in a circle and pressing the bottom of it tightly. It is made mainly of hyacinth (dead branches), small reeds, and wood in spring, summer, and fall, and felt in winter. The warm-season hayabuki is rolled into a round stick shape, folded up and put away on windless days, and enclosed when there is wind. The hayabuki for winter is made by stacking several layers of felt on top of each other, and it has a pattern on it.

17. Wooden pole

Yurt always stands behind a bare wooden pole, people respect it, usually not allowed outsiders to approach. It is said that Su Wu of the Han Dynasty went on a mission to Xiong Nu and was exiled by the king of Xiong Nu by the northern sea. Soon after his arrival, Li Ling, a surrendered general, was ordered to persuade Su Wu to surrender. He was scolded by Su Wu and had to raise his knuckle stick to beat him, so he fled in a panic. From then on, the king of Xiongnu did not feed Su Wu, so Su Wu opened up the land and planted food by himself. Whether it is herding sheep to fight grass, planting to do work, or living and lying down, the mission of the festival stick is not away from Su Wu's side for a while, day after day, the festival stick on the ribbon and banner ball are worn off, he still carries with him. When the local herdsmen saw him, they admired him very much. After Su Wu was welcomed back by the Han Dynasty, the local people missed him, so they all set up a bare wooden pole behind the yurt, as a symbol of the sectional rod that Su Wu left around at times in those years.

III. The influence of the yurt

1. Cultural symbol

For many centuries, the yurt has been the most representative feature of this nation. As the famous Danish explorer Henning Haslam said, "The sacred flame of the yurt is the center of family and tribal life. It is here that tradition is born. Those languages and atmospheres which surround the yurt and which have the most ancient and essential characteristics of the tribe are passed on from generation to generation and serve as a bridge between the ancient and the modern."

2. Literary Writings

Throughout history, many travelers, explorers, and scholars from the East and West have written about yurts in their writings. Luburu Beg, a Frenchman, was dispatched by King Louis IX of France in 1252 on a mission to the Mongolian Empire, and wrote "Journey to the East". The Journey to the East states, "They make these tents so large that they can sometimes be up to thirty feet wide. For I once measured the width between two wheel tracks left on the ground by a cart as twenty feet. I once counted, there is a car with twenty-two oxen to pull a tent "According to the Song Dynasty Peng Haiyun, Xu Ting, written by the Black Tartar Affairs Strategy, recorded:" the dome has two kinds: the system of Yenjing, with willow wood as the bone, as the southern Fu Si, can be rolled, open the door in front of the face, on the umbrella like bone, the top of the open a hole, known as the skylight, are all felt for clothing, the horse can be loaded. The system of grassland, the willow group set into a hard circle, the path with felt tart fixed, can not be rolled, the car carries line." The end of the Song and early Yuan Liao Zhao Liang Si poem said: "the new wind blowing snow under the chicken mountain, candle dark yurt night color cold." The dome is the yurt. Xiao Daheng of the Ming Dynasty's "Northern Captive Customs", the Qing Dynasty Zhang Mu's "Mongolian Nomadic Records", as well as the mid-thirteenth century travel accounts of John Plano Guestini, William Rubbrook and others, as well as the Travels of Marco Polo, and so on, all of these writings have a skimming description of the yurt. For example, in Marco Polo's Travels it says that yurts are round shaped houses made of wooden poles and felt. It can be folded and pulled in bundles on four-wheeled carts when migrating, and the door is always facing south when it is built, and so on.

3. Research Monographs

In recent times, the international research on yurt is more active. Chinese anthropologist Mr. Wu Wenzao went to Xilin Gol League in the 1930s to investigate the yurt and published the report of the investigation, "Yurt", in which he wrote: "The yurt is the most significant feature of the Mongolian people's material culture. It can be said that to understand everything about the yurt is to understand the reality of the Mongolian people in general." This sentence eloquently points out the important position that the yurt occupies in the nomadic life. Contemporary scholars, such as Inner Mongolia's Garlindal, Mongolia's Maidar, Dali Surong, Sharibdorj, etc. have published monographs on the study of yurts, of which Maidar, Dali Surong co-authored the book "yurts," combining archaeology, anthropology, history, folklore, architecture and other multidisciplinary knowledge, a more comprehensive study of yurts. Scholar Guo Yuqiao wrote "Detailed description of the yurt", for China's most detailed yurt monograph.

More Inner Mongolia-related culture: Inner Mongolia traditional customs and cultural knowledge book>>>