Traditional Architectural Styles and Characteristics of Qinghai

Qinghai is a province located in the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau, and it is also a multi-ethnic region. There are many ethnic groups living in Qinghai, such as Han Chinese, Tibetans, Hui and so on, and these ethnic cultures have created a diversity of cultures in Qinghai. These ethnic cultures learn from each other and integrate to create a unique regional culture and art. Let's take a look at the architectural culture of Qinghai.

Qinghai has four-fifths of the land is a vast pasture of green grass, since ancient times, more to pasture for a living. Herders to adapt to the lifestyle of living by water and grass, adopted an easy to move, can avoid the wind and rain, there is a certain warmth of the form of residence - "tent".

"Tent" is an ancient form of Tibetan herdsmen living, and later with the development of productive forces, its quality, scale, form and decoration have new improvements. The plane of the tent is mostly square, with wooden sticks as a support, covered with yak hair woven felt. The opening in the middle is about 1 meter long and 20 centimeters wide, which is used for light and exhaust, and the corners and the waist are fixed on the ground by pulling the cow hair rope. Room area is generally 12-20 square meters ranging, under the grass around the mud or adobe blocks, individual tents with stone blocks into a high of about 50 centimeters high short wall, stacked along the short wall of barley, ghee bags and cow dung fuel, etc.. Tent shorter, net height is generally only 1 meter 5 to 1 meter 8 or so, the tent is the most important part of the stove, located in the tent a little after the place where the Tibetan people's custom is in the stove right behind for the statue of Buddha.

Tent furnishings simple, sheepskin or felt on the ground, for sitting and lying. In addition to living in the tent room, there are the scripture hall tent room, reception tent room, tent room, school tent room. Its shape has a zigzag, hexagonal, octagonal, twelve angle, rectangular, etc., its activity area can accommodate more than ten to fifty or sixty people, the largest can accommodate nearly a hundred people. Tent on all sides of the white cloth decorated with religious significance of the pattern, such as the Golden Deer Dharma wheel, Sanskrit and cloud pattern, etc., the production of fine, very sophisticated. Indoor furnishings gorgeous, simple. Part of the living tent room and the war room in front of a colorful cloth streamers, with a strong religious color.

In southern Qinghai Yushu, Golog, Huangnan State, some areas, the Tibetan compatriots live in the building for the stone masonry two-storey or partial three-storey building, mostly built in the wind to the sun, can be defended against invasion of the hillside lot. For stone and wood, the outer wall with block or slice of stone masonry, wall thickness of 80-100 centimeters, the appearance of solid, stable, rugged, its shape like a watchtower, generally referred to as "Diaoyuan".

Diaoyuan ground floor arrangement of cattle, sheep pens and miscellaneous rooms, upstairs people, the best room as a Buddha Hall, next to the bedrooms and kitchens, there are individual small rooms is the kitchen and bedrooms in the same room. Doors and windows are not neatly arranged, poor indoor lighting. Roof for the flat roof, grass and mud surface with a stone roller calendaring, in the roof can be used as a wheat field, drying firewood and grass and for outdoor activities. Watchtower according to its form can be divided into towers watchtower, watchtower watchtower, independent and courtyard watchtower. Watchtower-style bunker is generally two or three layers, individual four layers, surrounded by high walls closed, some of the upper floor for the concave plane, conducive to lighting and outdoor activities, which is the main form of local Tibetan residence.

Watchtower-style watchtower is in the two or three layers of watchtower above the local highlights two or three rooms, more as the Hall of the scripture, the Buddha Hall, on which to do the sloping roof, the formation of the apex, shown as a tower. It is the main building of a region, more than a hundred households in the past, thousands of head of the residence, to show the majesty, a sense of supremacy.

In the eastern part of Qinghai, wheat, beans, potatoes and other crops in the fields, in the straight poplar bushes, dotted with sparse farmers living - "Zhuangre". That simple shape, turquoise trees, upturned waves of wheat, intertwined drains, loess trails, set off against each other, penetration, constituting the unique scenery of rural Qinghai.

Zhuangre is the basic form of rural farmers living in Qinghai. It is a family independent of a manor as a basic unit, the plane is square or rectangular, with 4 to 5 meters high, 50-80 centimeters thick slabs of loess wall or adobe masonry manor wall, surrounded by all the houses and courtyards inside. In addition to the only door, no other openings in the wall, Zhuang wall two, three or four sides of the layout of various rooms, generally a two-room three as a basic unit, arranged in the center, the four corners of the dark room for the kitchen, storage, livestock barns, miscellaneous rooms and toilets.

There are flower beds in the courtyard, planting fruit trees, flowers, elegant and quiet environment. Tibetan Zhuang arena in the indoor increase of small Buddha Hall, the roof of the four corners and the door in front of the arrangement of colorful cloth streamers; soil Zhuang arena Zhuang wall is high, there are sets of Zhuang and the layout of the joint Zhuang; Salar Zhuang arena, Zhuang more than one side or two sides of the house, the plane in the form of concave corridor as much as the depth of the house is large, the gable end of the woodwork is fine, wood carving pattern, carved through the sparrow, the more elaborate, exposed woodwork is more of a natural color.

Qinghai Tibet, soil, Mongolia and other ethnic groups believe in Tibetan Buddhism, monasteries throughout the region, a long history, preservation of time is also longer, is a wider range of local architecture in Qinghai, but also the most important part, and with a unique style, the integration of Tibetan and Chinese architectural art is famous in the world. In the process of development of Tibetan architecture, not only pay attention to absorb the architectural art and architectural style of the Han and other nationalities, but also maintain the traditional nature of the national architectural features and styles, promote the progress of technology, and promote the development of the cause of the national architecture.

Qinghai Hui, Salar inhabited areas, such as Xining, Hualong, Minhe, Datong, Menyuan, Methodist and other places of Islamic architecture - mosques are many, almost in every village and town where believers live, there are built in different sizes and styles of mosques. It has been developed, expanded and remodeled over the centuries, forming a more fixed content and type, but also an important part of the local architecture of Qinghai.