Earth Buildings of Yongding/Fujian Tulou

Fujian Toulou, Yongding County

Fujian Tulou is called “Ancient Castle in the East” and “Wonderful Work of World Architecture”. It is of high historical, artistic and scientific value because of its long history, wide varieties, large scale and exquisite structure. Fujian Tulou is a property of 46 buildings constructed between the 15th and 20th centuries over 120 km in south-west of 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 defending purposes around a central open courtyard with only one entrance and windows to the outside only above the first floor. 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.

                                         

                                         

Tulou, the residential building mainly made of earth in China, are located in in Yongding, Wupin, Shanghang, Nanjing, Pinghe, Huaan and Zhangpu in Fujian Province. Its style, decoration and building techniques are rare to see. With the raw soil as main material, Tulou also mixes fine sand, lime, glutinous rice, brown sugar, bamboo chip, batten, etc. And the building is built by the process of kneading, pounding and pressing. Durable burned tiles are used to cover the roofs. Fujian Tulou is made up of four or five storeys, where three or four generations of one family live together.

Fujian Tulou not only includes the common round building, but also include square building and cadeira shaped building. This kind of building appeared in Song and Yuan Dynasty, became mature during Late Ming Dynasty and Republican period. Both the oldest and youngest Toulou building in Fujian are located in Chuxi, and they are respectively 600 years old and 30 years old.