Living customs of Zhuang folk houses

Zhuang people like to live by mountains and rivers. Between the green mountains and green waters, wooden buildings are scattered all over the place, forming a unique landscape, which is a traditional folk house of Zhuang nationality. People live on top of wooden buildings and livestock are enclosed below. No matter what house it is, the shrine should be placed on the central axis of the whole house. The front hall is used for celebrations and social activities, with people living in the wings on both sides, and the back hall is the living area. Life in the house is centered on the fireplace, and three meals a day are carried out by the fireplace.

Zhuang people like to build their villages in sunny and well-ventilated places at the foot of the mountain. Trees are planted on the back of the mountain and the edge of the village, and it is forbidden to cut them indiscriminately to keep the life safety of the village. Zhuang people call the house a dry fence. The main forms of housing are full-column, semi-column and bungalow.

The whole dry fence house belongs to the whole building, with people living on the upper floor and livestock and farm tools on the lower floor, which is a traditional house form; In the past, this custom was mainly to prevent wild animals and small smuggled livestock. Now, it seems that the smell of livestock is rising downstairs, which is very unsanitary. Therefore, with the progress of society, Ganlan dwellings have gradually become bungalows or buildings where adults and livestock are separated.

The semi-column house has a studio, where people, cattle, sheep and farm tools live upstairs. They are all placed downstairs, and the other is a bungalow, mostly three-bay. This is the main housing form of Zhuang people today.