What are the characteristics of Qinghai architectural culture?

Qinghai is a multi-ethnic region, including Han, Tibetan, Tu, Hui, Salar, Mongolian and Kazak. The traditional culture and art of Han, Tibetan and Hui have the deepest influence on her culture, art and architectural features, and they learn from each other, absorb and integrate with each other to create culture and art with local characteristics. An important part of these cultural and artistic achievements is embodied in architecture. Then the following article will introduce all kinds of famous buildings in Qinghai.

One: Living in pastoral areas-"accounting room" and "private room"

Four-fifths of Qinghai's land is a vast pasture with green grass, which has been dominated by grazing since ancient times. In order to adapt to the lifestyle of living on weeds, herders have adopted a living form-"tent" and "private house", which is easy to move, can shelter from the wind and rain, and has certain thermal insulation performance.

Tent house is an ancient living form of Tibetan herdsmen. Later, with the development of productivity, its quality, scale, form and decoration were improved. The plane of the counting house is mostly square, supported by wooden sticks and covered with carpets made of yak hair. The middle opening, about 1 m long and 20 cm wide, is used for lighting and ventilation, and the four corners and waist are fixed to the ground with ox hair ropes. The indoor area is generally 12-20 square meters. The lower part of the periphery of the room is built into a low wall with a height of about 50 cm with grass mud or adobe, and some accounting rooms are built with stones. Barley, butter buns and cow dung fuels are piled up along the low wall. The tent is relatively short, and the clear height is only about 1.5m to1.8m. The most important part of the tent is the stove, which is located in the later stage of the tent. The custom of Tibetans is to worship Buddha statues directly behind the stove. The tent is simply furnished, and the ground is covered with sheepskin or felt for sitting and lying.

In addition to the living account room, there are hall account room, reception account room, discussion account room, school account room and so on. Most of these tents are made of cloth, which are used by middle and upper class people and lamas and monks. They are herringbone, hexagon, octagon, dodecagon, rectangle and so on. And their activity area can accommodate more than ten to fifty or sixty people, and at most, it can accommodate nearly one hundred people. Its periphery is inlaid with black, blue and brown decorative patterns, and some are covered with canopies or canopies with black or brown circular lace. The white cloth around the tent is decorated with religious patterns such as landing Falun, Sanskrit and moire, which are beautifully made and very elegant. The interior furnishings are gorgeous and simple. In front of some living rooms and lecture halls, there are various kinds of cloth strips, which are criss-crossed and have a strong religious color.

"Private room" usually refers to Mongolian yurts, which is the main living form of Mongolian herdsmen in the southwest and west grasslands of Qinghai. It generally uses more than 200 wooden poles about 2 meters long, with a round umbrella-shaped wooden pole at the top and supported on a bracket composed of round poles. Generally, the circular plane covers an area of about 15 square meter, and can accommodate five or six people, or as many as seven or eight people. Some big yurts can accommodate 70-80 people for gathering and chanting. There are door leaves and small windows on the periphery of the bag, and a round mouth is opened at the top, which can transmit light and exhaust, and can be shielded in case of wind and rain; On the ground is a carpeted wooden bed, wooden cabinet, wardrobe, neatly stacked bedding and blankets. Sit indoors on the floor, with the guest seat on the left side of the door, the main seat on the right side, and the distinguished guest or elder seat directly above the door. There is a stove or stove on the right side of the porch, and there are food, utensils and tableware racks for dining and entertaining guests nearby. "Private rooms" are simple in appearance, some are made of various laces and meaningful patterns, and the interior furnishings are exquisite and gorgeous, showing the life and hobbies of Mongolian people.

Two. Folk houses in southern Qing Dynasty-"Diaofang" and "Diaoyuan"

In parts of Yushu, Guoluo and Huangnan Prefecture in the south of Qinghai, it is a semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral area combining agriculture and animal husbandry, where there are high mountains and valleys rich in stones. Tibetan residential buildings are mostly stone two-story or local three-story buildings, which are mostly built on sunny and leeward slopes to prevent invasion. It is made of stone and wood, and the outer wall is made of stone or flaky. The wall thickness is 80- 100 cm, and there are few openings on the wall. Doors and windows are also small, with solid, steady and rough shapes. It looks like a watchtower and is generally called "watchtower".

The cowshed, sheepfold and utility room are arranged on the ground floor of the diaojiao building, and people live upstairs. The best room in the room is used as a Buddhist temple, next to the bedroom and kitchen. Some small hanging rooms are the same as kitchens and bedrooms. The doors and windows are irregularly arranged, and the indoor lighting is poor. The roof is flat, and the grass mud surface is polished with stones, which can be used as a place for threshing, drying firewood and outdoor activities.

Bunkers can be divided into bunker-style bunkers, bunker tower bunkers, independent bunkers and courtyard bunkers according to their forms.

Bunker-style bunkers are generally two or three floors, and some have four floors. The surrounding walls are closed, and some upper floors are recessed, which is conducive to lighting and outdoor activities. This is the main form of local hiding.

Tower-shaped watchtower refers to the tower-shaped watchtower with two or three partially protruding towers above the second and third floors, which are mostly used as prayer halls and Buddhist temples. It is the main building in a region. In the past, hundreds and thousands of households lived in it. The demonstrations were strict and there was a sense of supremacy.

Independent bunker refers to a bunker that exists alone without a courtyard. It is mostly built in a hidden barren mountain valley. The plane changes with the terrain and is scattered in mountains and valleys. In villages where people live in compact communities, these independent bunkers are arranged freely, with high and low levels stacked at random, and connected with each other by small stone steps.

In addition to the bunker as the main body, the courtyard wall is built on the front or three sides to form a closed courtyard, and livestock pens, miscellaneous houses and servant houses are arranged along the courtyard wall. This quadrangle-style bunker is mostly inhabited by aristocratic leaders.

Where the village is formed, some bunkers are connected with each other, standing on the mountain and shaped according to the ground, highlighting tower bunkers or courtyard bunkers, freely and variably forming the center of a region, connecting the alleys everywhere, wide and tortuous, which is an important feature of the bunker layout.

"Tiaoyuan" is a group of large-scale comprehensive buildings, which is different from quadrangle-style Tiaoyuan. It usually has three floors, and in some areas it has four floors. The plane is quadrangular, with a big courtyard in the middle and small flower beds for planting trees and flowers. Cloisters are set around the inner courtyard, and the outer walls are made of stone, which is completely closed. In addition to the door, there are several small windows on the wall. The ground floor is a barn and a miscellaneous house; The second floor is mostly warehouse, reception room, helper room, etc. The third floor is the bedroom, kitchen, granary and treasure house; The fourth floor is Buddhist temple, Buddhist temple and Confucian classroom. The hospital has many contents, large area and large volume. Some painted black or brown round beads on the daughter's wall, and picked out one or two square rafters from the eaves on the window. As a traditional form of hidden windows, it enriches the facade and changes the clumsy feeling of stone walls.

Bunker houses have strong adaptability in southern Qinghai, especially in places where wild animals are infested and looting is rampant. At the same time, they have the characteristics of local materials and convenient construction, and can be widely adopted and developed. However, the carved gardens are only used by individual nobles and big businessmen, which is rare because of its high standard, difficult construction and large investment.

On a small piece of flat land in semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral areas, next to four fields in Pingchuan, there are also scattered bunkers, mostly earthworks. The outer wall is rammed with adobe or slab soil, and the height is two or three floors. The form is similar to the internal layout and stone bunker, but the appearance is simple and clean after mud polishing.

Three. Rural Dwellings-"Zhuangke"

In the fields rich in wheat, broad beans, potatoes and other crops in eastern Qinghai, among the straight poplars, there are scattered houses of farmers-"Zhuangke". The quaint appearance, green trees, upturned wheat waves, interwoven canals and loess paths set off each other and penetrate each other, forming a unique landscape in rural areas of Qinghai.

"Zhuangke" was originally a relatively simple square closed flat dwelling, which looked like a seal from above and covered the ground. The locals call it "Zhuangke".

Zhuangke is the basic form of rural farmers' residence in Qinghai. It takes one household as the basic unit, and the plane is square or rectangular. It is made of loess walls or adobe walls with a thickness of 4-5 meters and 50-80 centimeters, and all the houses and courtyards inside are surrounded. There is no other opening in the Zhuang wall except the only gate. All kinds of rooms are arranged on two sides, three sides or four sides of the Zhuang wall. Generally, there are three rooms, one hall and two rooms in the middle, and the darkrooms in the four corners are mostly kitchens, warehouses, barns, utility rooms and toilets. There are flower beds in the yard with fruit trees and flowers. The environment is elegant and quiet.

Agricultural areas are areas where Han, Tibetan, Hui, Tu, Salar and other ethnic groups live together, and all ethnic groups are scattered and concentrated in a small area, so the form of villages is basically similar, but there are some differences in facilities. For example, there are many brick carvings at the entrance of Huimin Zhuang, and there are self-use wells in the courtyard; There is a small Buddhist temple in the Tibetan village, with various cloth strips at the four corners of the roof and in front of the door; The wall of Tu village is tall, with a layout of one village and one joint village; Most of the houses of Salar Zhuang nationality are built on one side or both sides, and the plane is in the form of concave corridor. The house is deep, the eaves are thin, the woodcut and the exposed wood are mostly natural.

Most cottages are bungalows, and a few are bungalows. The roof is flat and covered with grass mud. The slope of the roof is relatively gentle, and it is not easy to be washed away by rain. You can dry things on the roof on sunny days, and it is also an outdoor activity place.

"Zhuangke" has the characteristics of ordinary folk houses in China, but due to the limitation of natural conditions, the earth wall feels rough and closed, and its appearance is unpretentious. Some are carved with bricks, with exquisite shapes, beams and sparrows, fine wood carvings, and rich shapes of front porches or concave porches, which are elegant and generous.

For hundreds of years, in the struggle with nature, local residents have constantly innovated, created and improved the living form of "Zhuangke" and made it adapt to the local natural and climatic conditions. Although the climate in Qinghai is dry and windy, the interior of Zhuangke is very clean. At the same time, it also has the advantages of convenient life, safety, local materials and convenient construction. Zhuangke is still widely used by local farmers because of its characteristics of wind and sand fixation, good thermal insulation, easy beautification and easy construction.

Four: Tibetan Buddhist temple architecture

Tibetans, Tu and Mongolians in Qinghai believe in Tibetan Buddhism, and temples are spread all over the country with a long history and long preservation time. They are the most important and extensive part of local architecture in Qinghai, and are famous for their unique style and the integration of Tibetan and Chinese architectural arts.

The location of Tibetan Buddhist temples used to be the administrative, cultural and economic center of a region, and even the management center of farmers' and herdsmen's manors. The overall layout is multifunctional, and it is the unity of politics and religion. There are temples, Buddhist temples, Zhacang (Academy), Lama Pagoda, Gawa (Xiang Qian, Living Buddha's Office), Jiwa (Office), Zhakang (Lama's usual residence), handicraft workshops, warehouses, granaries, stables, miscellaneous hospitals and so on. Some big temples also have execution halls and prisons, but the scale and number are different.

Although Tibetan Buddhist temple buildings were built in different addresses, in different years, influenced by different factions of Tibetan Buddhism, and in different natural conditions and productivity levels, they still have many common characteristics. Generally speaking, most of them are influenced to varying degrees by the traditional art of Tibetan Buddhist temples in Tibet and the architectural art of temples in China. Most of them are architectural forms combining Tibetan and Chinese architectural arts, which are generally called Tibetan and Chinese architecture.

In addition to the religious significance of individual temples, the site selection of Tibetan Buddhist temple buildings is mostly in quiet and elegant hillsides or dense forests, with mountains and rivers, staggered heights, overlapping each other, highlighting the vertices and not emphasizing group symmetry. The combination of building density, alternating flat slopes, adapting to local conditions and relying on nature forms various spaces with local natural scenery.

The modeling of temple buildings mostly adopts the combination of Chinese mountain rest and Tibetan flat roof. Install pagodas and flame palms on the top ridge of the slope, and install animals, bells, pipe tiles or glazed tile roofs at the four corners. The bucket arch overhangs, flies out of the eaves, and the corners are tilted, which is bright and light. The ceiling is decorated with golden buildings, Lu Jinfa wheels, pagodas, treasure umbrellas and cloth strips. , dazzling, dazzling.

The hall is covered with colorful flags, carpets, silks and satins and "Hada". The ceiling is decorated with algae wells and the beams are carefully carved. The furnishings are colorful. The parapet part of the wall is decorated with "centipede wall" horizontal belt, and the wall is decorated with trapezoidal brick leg hidden windows and brown inlay. Double or triple short rafters are selected for windows, and the walls between windows are painted black and brown, and some of them are used as whip layers to highlight bronze mirrors. There are many front porches in front of the main hall, decorated with eight columns or eight columns, supported by palm treads, fish claws, rafters, lotus petals, lotus beads and honeycomb rafters, and some of them are supported by arches and overhangs. In the pastoral areas of Qinghai, especially in the south of Qinghai, some Tibetan Buddhist temple buildings are mostly in the form of blockhouses because of the source of materials, but most of them highlight the roof of Xiehou Mountain, and the upper part of the wall is decorated with a centipede wall.

Tibetan Buddhist temple architecture is not only unique in shape, but also has exquisite murals inside, which enriches the art of religious architecture. Murals mostly use the technique of "Regong" art in Huangnan, Qinghai, which is unique. The murals mainly show the images of Sakyamuni, Zong Kaba, the ancestor of the Yellow Sect, the Four Heavenly Kings, the Bodhisattvas, the protector and Tara. Taking Buddhist activities and stories as the main content, it shows the activities of figures, the natural scenery of the plateau, rivers and mountains, birds and animals, pavilions, grasslands, colorful flowers and colorful clouds. The scenery is colorful and the characters are lifelike.

V: Islamic architecture

Northwest China is the main area where Islam spreads. There are many Islamic buildings-mosques in areas where Hui and Salar people live in concentrated communities in Qinghai, such as Xining, Hualong, Minhe, Datong, Menyuan and Xunhua. Almost every village where believers live has built mosques of different sizes and styles. After hundreds of years of development, expansion and reconstruction, it has formed a relatively fixed content and style, and is also an important part of local architecture in Qinghai.

For a long time, the layout of the mosque has formed a strict system, which consists of the gathering hall, the "minaret" (called the tower, later renamed the bunker building), the bathroom and the chanting hall. Large mosques also have classrooms, offices and rooms for imams.

Auditorium is the main body of mosque, and its plane is mostly rectangular, square and convex. The hall is clean, elegant and quiet. The number of people attending church varies from dozens to four or five hundred. There is a wide front porch or eaves gallery in front of the audience, separated by wooden fences. There is a big courtyard or patio in front of the hall, with rooms on both sides; The main hall is tall and magnificent in the middle, and the roof is mostly a single-layer roof leaning against the mountain, with blue pipe tiles, some of which are crescent tiles or glazed tiles, and the roof is topped with Aquarius, sword and crescent moon. The overall structure is a brick-wood structure, with a wooden frame inside and a shed on the front porch. The surrounding walls are built with blue bricks or adobe, and both sides of the hallway or front porch are mostly carved with blue bricks. Brick carvings are reliefs, and a few are hollow carvings; Exquisite carving, novel composition, exquisite workmanship, decorated with trees, flowers, moire and Arabic characters, scenery and so on. Vivid modeling, beautiful modeling, diverse patterns, mostly standardized, assembled, close to nature, full of life. This is a unique artistic achievement in Huizhou architecture, which mostly absorbs the traditional art and techniques of "Hezhou Brick Carving" in Gansu and has strong local characteristics.

The steeple was built in front of the temple. Many mosques have one mosque in front of them, and a few have two mosques. One mosque is located on the main axis in front of the temple, and the other two mosques are symmetrically arranged. There are squares, hexagons and octagons on the plane, which are divided into three, four and five layers. Towering spires and overhanging eaves, such as China Pagoda. There is a wooden ladder spiraling up. The base is a layer of solid wall, decorated with brick carvings, with a bright, steady and generous shape.

The architectural form of Qinghai Mosque is deeply influenced by the architecture of Chinese mainland Mosque. There are few domed and arched buildings like those in Arabia and Xinjiang, and most of them are temples with Han style in China. Dome-shaped and arched buildings have only appeared in recent years.

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