The National Characteristics of Li Nationality's Dwellings

Among the houses with different shapes, the boathouse is the most primitive building. According to legend, during the Yin and Zhou Dynasties 3,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Li nationality crossed the ocean by wooden boat, overcame all kinds of obstacles, and came to the beautiful and rich Hainan Island, and decided to settle here, so the wooden boat became their shelter from the wind and rain. In order to commemorate and worship their ancestors, wooden boat-shaped cabins have been handed down from generation to generation and named "boathouse". Nowadays, boathouses are rare, and they are mainly preserved in the hinterland of Wuzhishan.

The traditional boathouse is about three or four meters high and two meters wide. Take bamboo as the frame and thatch as the top. The underground is mainly made of wood or bamboo, which can prevent moisture. Generally above the ground 1 m or so. There is a fire pit in the house.

Turtle-shaped houses are unique to Li Run. The tortoise-shaped house looks like a tortoise from a distance. It is the largest of all Lebanese-style houses. The house is round, mainly made of bamboo and wood.

The building of Li Caotang is very interesting and primitive. First of all, the frame of the house is made of bamboo and wood. Then, the selected straw roots were soaked in water for three days, decomposed and mixed with sticky red soil, and then taken out one by one and pasted on the bamboo frame. When the wall is repaired, the roof will be built. The main materials of the roof are thatch and bamboo strips. First, the sun-dried thatch is bundled with bamboo strips, then transported to the roof, and then this bundle of thatch is tied together with bamboo strips, so that the roof is very strong. Even if it is a downpour or a typhoon, there is no phenomenon of being blown down by the wind and leaking rain. The thatch on the roof is1-changed once every two years.

Cow heads and horns are often hung on the doors of Li people's houses. This is their love and reverence for cattle. If the cows that have followed them for more than ten years die, they will leave their foreheads and horns and hang them at their doorsteps. The horns are paired, a bull and a cow, and the cow's horn is placed on the bull's horn. Li people express their nostalgia and love for cows in this way, which also symbolizes that their owners should be as hardworking and fearless as cows.