Study On The Traditional Tibetan Residence Of Muli In Southwestern Sichuan

With the deepening of modern civilization, the features of different cities around the world gradually turn to be the same, even worth including the Tibetan dwellings which are relatively inaccessible in former, the traditional country areas suffer from constructive destruction to varying degrees, in which the residents’ traditional way of life and living have also been being influenced in a certain degree. Kham Tibetan, who mainly live in the Hengduan Mountains of western Sichuan Province, is an important branch of the Tibetan. There are also some important parts of Kham Tibetan live in Muli Tibetan Autonomous County of Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture of southwestern Sichuan, while the research about traditional Tibetan residence of Muli is quite little.Then this paper makes the Tibetan traditional residence of Muli as the research object and takes a case study of the Gami Tibetans’ houses of Donglang in the northen part of Muli. For doing the research deeply and comprehensively, the author not only uses the theories of architecture and urban planning, but also adopts the related knowledges of sociology, cultural studies, ethnology, archeology and typology while combining multiform research methods such as literature research, field research, mapping, simulation analysis and regional comparison.The paper firstly combs the natural and cultural environment of Muli to analyse the background of the Tibetan residencies’ forming and the reasons of its transition. Secondly, the body of the paper focus on the Tibetan residential settlements in the whole Muli and the Tibetan residential houses of Donglang. From the aspect of residential settlements, the paper analyses their siting elements, layout and morphological characteristics, spatial composition and road system, then summarizes their growth order. From the aspect of residential houses, the author firstly classifies them by their function and morphology; and then selects Fort House, the most commen residential house type for Tibetan as the further object to analyse its flat shape, spatial layout, structures, surface design, decoration and color; and explores its construction process, excellent traditional architectural craftsmanship and the special customs while building; what’s more, particularly worth mentioning is the tentative simulation analysis about the indoor physical environment; in further, the paper compares the Gami Tibetan’s house to the other Tibetans’ houses and the ones of other ethnic groups in Muli, and sums up its unique architectural vocabulary. At last, to deal with the current situation that both the local Tibetans living needs and their aesthetics have been changing, from the perspective of harmonious coexistence of man and the environment, insisting the position that the outstanding achievements of modern civilization should benefit the Tibetans, in line with the principles of sustainable development, the paper tries to make some constructive suggestions or programs for protection and update for their traditional residence.This article aims to detect the constructional culture connotation in the ethnic minority areas of western Sichuan, which needs to be researched and protected, and then the author tries to learn and extract the rich architectural vocabulary to accumulate materials and inspirations for the research of vernacular architecture and the creation of regional architecture. This paper strongly complements the research system of Kham Tibetan residential dwelling, and hopes to make a modest contribution to inheriting and developing the Tibetan’s historic culture.