Page 19 - JCAU-5-2

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Style evolution rules of Tibetan dwellings

2019). As one of the three major Tibetan regions, the Amdo to simple “archetypes” and “variants” (Cao et al., 1999),
Tibetan area is mainly located in the Sichuan, Gansu, and whereas the “archetypes” do not change with historic
Qinghai provinces and is a multi-ethnic “Tibetan-Qiang-Yi development, i.e., uniformity, while the “variants” are
corridor” area that has been used for migration for a long variations of the archetypes that change with historical,
period of time. Due to its unique geographical location and political, economic, social, and other influences, i.e.,
historical multi-ethnic integration, the residential style of variability. Jiang (2007) proposed a typology of dwellings
Amdo has retained the characteristics of Tibetan architecture based on a review of Rossi’s and Manchurian’s research
in terms of ethnic origin but also developed diversified on local traditional dwellings, arguing that, through this
regional characteristics due to the influence of surrounding approach, the essential meaning of the dwelling could be
cultures. The Tibetan region of Amdo is located in an area explored. In recent years, Chinese scholars have studied
prone to earthquakes, with a number of earthquakes of the plan (Xin, 2020), façade (Li & Wang, 2015; Xiang,
magnitude 5.0 or above occurring in the last 30 years, and 2019), interior interface (Zhang, 2016), doors (Yuan et al.,
many damaged houses have been repaired and rebuilt. 2022), house form (Meng & Luo, 2016; Zhu et al., 2016) and
Furthermore, with the development of rural urbanization, structure of dwellings (Deng, 2021) from the perspective
a large number of rural construction projects have been of architectural typology, with qualitative analyses as the
implemented in the Amdo Tibetan area. While the living main method of research with less reliance on quantitative
conditions of Tibetans have been improved, the dwellings analyses. The style of dwellings is influenced by the natural
in this region have become increasingly homogenized with and human environment and is always in a state of dynamic
those of other Tibetan areas. Ethnic culture is crucial for the change, producing complex appearances. Using the idea
development of ethnic minority regions, but post-disaster of “prototype-variant” in architectural typology, the core
reconstruction and rural development have resulted in a elements of the style of dwellings can be effectively grasped,
serious distortion of the residential landscape in the Amdo and on this basis, the quantitative analysis method can be
Tibetan region, which will slow down the development of expanded to obtain objective knowledge of the evolution
the Amdo Tibetan region in the long term. of the style of dwellings, thus promoting the protection and
In contrast to traditional Tibetan dwellings, scholars inheritance of the style of dwellings.
have focused almost exclusively on the “black tents” and From an architectural typology perspective, this
“towers” of the Tibetan people, and there has been less article presents a case study on the Tibetan dwellings of
literature on Tibetan dwellings in the Amdo Tibetan Jiuzhaigou, a World Natural Heritage site located in the
area. Wang (2015) and Ke (2015) classified the types of Tibetan region of Amdo. Based on field research, we have
residential buildings according to plan form, materials, clarified the prototypes of the dwelling styles and their
construction, and decorative arts; Guo (2016) discussed variants and constructed a quantitative analysis framework
the cultural heritage of dwellings in terms of plan function of “classification-iconic indicators-characteristic calculation
and spatial order; Cheng (2017) proposed a model of indicators” to explore the evolution of Tibetan dwelling styles
residential renewal that takes into account environmental, under changes in natural, policy, and human environments,
technological, and cultural factors based on a summary of with a view to providing a basis for subsequent village
residential construction models; and Li et al. (2022) studied planning and spatial optimization of dwellings, inheriting
the structural characteristics and seismic performance and promoting the culture of ethnic regions and aiding in
of the dwellings. Most of these studies focused on the rural revitalization.
common temporal symbols to measure the category,
value, and cultural authenticity of the dwellings, ignoring 2. Methodology
the fact that the greatest authenticity of the dwellings 2.1. Presentation of the case study
should be their “evolutionary authenticity” and the
“living information authenticity” of their long-term use The Jiuzhaigou World Natural Heritage site is located
by the inhabitants in the process of social development; in the southeastern part of the Tibetan region of Amdo
therefore, studies on the temporal nature of the dwellings and belongs to the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous
in the Tibetan area of Amdo are urgently needed. As a Prefecture of Sichuan Province. The site is named Jiuzhaigou
methodological system of categorization and grouping, because of the nine Tibetan villages of Heye, Pangya, Yana,
the study of architectural typologies is a potential solution Jianpan, Heijiao, Shuzheng, Zechawa, Zaru, and Guodu
to induce building construction to follow a broad-based, (Figure 1). In 1992, it was added to the World Heritage List,
territorial, and culturally appropriate trajectory (Wang, meeting the criteria of Article VII of the Convention for the
2003). Architectural typologies can summarize a series of Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage—
complex architectural forms that are intrinsically linked “Areas of outstanding natural phenomena or of rare natural

Volume 5 Issue 2 (2023) 2 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.0880