Tianluokeng Tulou cluster

Infobox World Heritage Site
WHS = Fujian Tulou, Tianluokeng Tulou cluster 1113-006


State Party =
Type = Cultural
Criteria = iii, iv, v
ID = 1113
Region = Asia-Pacific
Year = 2008
Session = 32nd
Extension =
Link = http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1113

Tianluokeng tulou cluster (田螺坑土楼群) is one of the better known Fujian Tulou cluster. It is located in Fujian province, Zhangzhou City, Nanjing County, Shuyang Township, Tian Luo Keng Village (literally "Snail Pit" Village) in southern China.

The cluster consists of a square earth building at the center of a quincunx, surrounded by four round earth buildings (or more exactly, 3 round earth buildings and one oval shape earth building), figuratively nickenamed "四菜一汤, Si cai yi tang" (four dishes with a soup).

A tulou (lit. "earth building") is a unique architecture found only in the mountainous areas bordering Fujian and Guangdong in southern China. The "Earth building" is an enclosed buildings, usually square or circular in shape, with a very thick earth wall (up to 6 feet thick) and wooden skeletons, from three to five storeys high, housing up to 80 families. These earth buildings have only one entrance, guarded by 4-5 inch thick wooden doors re-enforced with an outer shell of iron plate. The top level of these earth building have gun holes for defence against bandits. In spite of the earth wall, some of them are more than 700 years old, surviving thru centuries of natural elements, including earth quakes, yet still standing solid. There are more than 35,000 earth buildings to be found in southern China, among them a little over 3000 have being classified as Fujian Tulou

In July 7 2008 UNESCO 32nd session held in Quebec city Canada, Tianluokeng tulou cluster was inscribed as one of 46 Fujian Tulou World Heritage Site [http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1113 Fujian Tulou] . The five earth buildings at the Snail Pit village are:
*The square earth building named Buyun building(Reaching the Cloud building) at the center of the quincunx. It was the first earth building at this site, built in 1796. It is three storeys high, each storey has 26 rooms, four sets of stairs, and a circular corridor in front of the rooms. The Buyun building was burnt down by bandits in 1936, and rebuilt in1953 according to the original shape.
*The Hechang building, a three storey high round earth building,
*Zhenchang building, three storey, round shape, 26 rooms per storey, built in 1930
*Ruiyun building, built in 1936,
*The last Wenchang building of 1966, 3 storeys, 32 rooms per storey.

The cluster is located about four hours drive by motor coach or taxi from Xiamen, through winding and pumpy narrow mountain roads.

References