Zhuang ke's Qinghai folk house "Zhuang ke"

Hui, Tu, Salar and other ethnic groups living in the east of Qinghai live in a kind of folk house called Zhuangke.

In the eastern agricultural area of Qinghai, along the Huangshui River and the Yellow River, the counties and cities in the middle reaches of Datong River, such as Huangzhong, Huangyuan, Datong, Huzhu, Xining, Ledu, Minhe, Hualong, Xunhua and Menyuan, are inhabited by Han, Tibetan, Hui, Tu and Lala nationalities. Zhuangke is a life form created by these ethnic groups in their struggle with nature for hundreds of years. The villa is surrounded by earth walls, and the living room is supported by a wooden frame. The courtyard is connected with the house through the eaves gallery. There are carports, forage sheds, livestock sheds, orchards and vegetable gardens in the hospital. Most villas are bungalows, and few buildings are flat. The house is supported by a wooden frame with a flat roof, covered with grass mud, and the top slope is gentle. When it rains, the roof is not easily washed away by rain. When it snows, it is convenient to sweep the snow at home to avoid water leakage on the roof. The roof can also be used as a supplement to the courtyard, which can dry grain and dried vegetables, and can also take a wooden ladder to get up and down the roof.

Generally a group of three bedrooms, one bright and two dark, that is, the main room is in the middle and the bedrooms are on both sides. The furniture in the hall is arranged symmetrically along the wall of the village. The fire kang in the bedroom is arranged along the window or gable, and there are suitcases, kang cabinets and kang tables. The kang and furniture account for more than half of the living room area. The size and depth of the living room are related to the material of the beam frame, and the six-column or eight-column bay is the basic bay. The front porch is the transition between the house and the courtyard. Every villa should try to set up a porch, and the eaves are the key decorative parts of the villa.

The appearance of the whole villa is simple, the gate leans to one side, and the gatehouse has various styles, some of which are carved with bricks and beautifully shaped. Every villa tries to decorate the gate. Corridor is the most abundant, and there are many styles of panes. Wood carving is the main means of Zhuang decoration.

Due to the large dispersion and small centralized distribution of all ethnic groups, although the forms of Zhuangke are basically the same, some facilities are different. There are many brick carvings and walls at the entrance of Huimin Zhuang, and there are self-use wells in the courtyard; Tuzhuang has a layout of Taozhuang and Lianzhuang, with tall walls; All kinds of cloth strips are flying at the four corners of the roof and in front of the door of the Tibetan villa, and a small Buddhist temple is added indoors; The houses of the Salar Zhuang nationality are deep, and most of the houses of the Zhuang nationality are single-sided or double-sided, with woodcut patterns and carved birds, which are more elegant.

Over the past hundred years, local residents have been innovating and reforming constantly in the struggle with nature, creating and perfecting the living form of "Zhuangke" and making 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.