If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Author(s):UNESCOPRESS
Source:UNESCO Press Release Nº2008-53
05-07-2008

Fujian Tulou (China) is a property of 46 houses built between the 12th and 20th centuries over 120 km in south-west Fujian province, inland from the Taiwan Strait. Set amongst rice, tea and tobacco fields the tulou are earthen houses. Several storeys high, they are built along an inward-looking, circular or square floor plan as housing for up to 800 people each. They were built for defence purposes around a central open courtyard with few windows to the outside and only one entrance.

Housing a whole clan, the houses functioned as village units and were known as “a little kingdom for the family” or “bustling small city.” They feature tall fortified mud walls capped by tiled roofs with wide over-hanging eaves. The most elaborate structures date back to the 17th and 18th centuries.

The buildings were divided vertically between families with each disposing of two or three rooms on each floor. In contrast with their plain exterior, the inside of the tulou were built for comfort and were often highly decorated. They are inscribed as exceptional examples of a building tradition and function exemplifying a particular type of communal living and defensive organization, and, in terms of their harmonious relationship with their environment, an outstanding example of human settlement.

These additions to UNESCO’s World List were made by the 21-member World Heritage Committee meeting in Quebec City until 10 July under the Chair of Christina Cameron.

The State Bureau of Cultural Relics has applied to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to place earth buildings, (”tulou” in Chinese) in east China’s Fujian Province, on the World Cultural Heritage List.

According to Saturday’s “China Daily“, the UN experts will make an appraisal in the spring of next year and will make their decision in August 2008.

Scattered over a remote mountainous area, most of the 20,000 earth buildings are well-preserved. These huge buildings, which resemble fortresses and area usually as high as five-storey buildings, are called earth buildings because of their height and their strong, outer shell which is made up of earth.

Regarded by architects as the cream of Chinese traditional residential architecture, “tulou” first appeared about 1,200 years ago, and were mostly completed in the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

They were built and inhabited by the Hakka people — a group belonging to the Han family — who can trace their ancestors back more than 1,500 years to central and north China.

Credit: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn