Where is yurt a way of life?

"The sky is grey, the wilderness is boundless, the wind blows the grass and the cattle and sheep are low" ("Red Music") describes the grassland scenery of Mongolian in Inner Mongolia and Kazak in Xinjiang. There are many white felt bags scattered on the green prairie, which is a unique form of living-yurts (or yurts) adapt to their nomadic life of living on aquatic plants.

A yurt is a round mobile house. Because of its bulging shape, the ancients called it "vault". Mongolian yurts are mostly 4-6 meters in diameter, woven into a grid with wooden strips and covered with sheepskin or felt. It is covered with an umbrella-shaped movable roof, and the top has a circular skylight, which is convenient to close. It is not only a lighting, ventilation and smoke outlet. The entrance inside the yurt is the owner's residence, and the center of the whole bag is a fire pit fire rack for cooking and heating. The ground and walls are often covered with colorful carpets to make small spaces look warm and warm.

Mongolian herders usually have to move twice a year: in May, the atmosphere is getting warmer, and it is necessary to find areas with rich aquatic plants suitable for grazing; It's breezy in October, so we need to find a place to spend the winter. It only takes one or two hours to disassemble the yurt, which is very convenient. When moving, transport it by camel or carriage. "Ayiwang" in Xinjiang

Ayiwang-style dwellings are named after Ayiwang Hall. "Ayiwang" is a Uyghur language, which means "land of light". It is a famous architectural form of Uygur folk houses in Xinjiang, with very distinctive national and local characteristics, and has a history of more than 2,000 years.

Ayiwang Hall is the largest, tallest, best decorated and brightest hall in this kind of residential building. There are 2-8 pillars in the middle of the room, the upper part of which protrudes from the roof, and the high side window is convenient for lighting. There is a kang platform with a width of 2.5-5 meters and a height of 45 centimeters around the column, which is covered with carpets for daily life, entertaining guests, enjoying the cool and resting, staying in summer, playing games for children, the elderly and women. Every festival is a happy space for Uighurs who are good at singing and dancing to get together. All the other rooms in the Ayiwang-style residential building are arranged around Ayiwang Hall.

From an architectural point of view, "Ayiwang" is completely an indoor part, which is the living room of a residential building. But from the functional analysis, it is an outdoor activity place, a place for entertaining guests, parties and singing and dancing activities. "Ayiwang" is more suitable for the climatic characteristics such as sandstorm, cold and hot than other outdoor activities such as verandas and patios. This is a local building rooted in the local geographical and cultural environment. The unique climate characteristics in Xinjiang are the deepest source for Uighurs to create "Ayiwang" dwellings.

The interior of Uygur dwellings is clean and beautiful, and the walls are all decorated with fabrics, such as wall mats, door curtains and curtains, and the ground is carpeted; In order to avoid soot pollution, fireplaces, firewalls and fire pits are used to keep rooms clean. Most Uighur dwellings are decorated with plaster patterns, especially pointed arched niches. In addition, the hearth, hood, cornice and upper edge of the fireplace are also decorated with gypsum carvings.