Tibetan Watchtower Building Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
According to 2004 statistics, there remain 562 ancient watchtower buildings in Danba County as a whole.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Danba County lies in the west of Sichuan Province, a multi-ethnic area predominantly inhabited by the Jiarong Tibetans. The ancient watchtower cluster of Danba County has a long history and is a masterpiece of architectural art by the Jiarong Tibetan ancestors. Danba County has the greatest number, densest concentration, and most complete range of ancient watchtower types in China and indeed the world; the history of its ancient watchtowers can be traced back as far as the Qin and Han periods. After the Sui and Tang, ancient watchtowers became greatly prevalent in western Danba and the entire eastern-Tibet region, and have been handed down without break. The ancient watchtowers of Danba come in many forms—quadrangular, pentagonal, octagonal, tridecagonal, and so on—with the quadrangular tower the most common. The whole building has edges like knife blades, upright and straight, with smooth walls and thick, solid masonry; though aged, it still stands aloft. The Tibetan stone-masonry traditional craft represented by the Danba ancient watchtowers is called the "stone-stacking craft"; it naturally applies the principles of architectural mechanics, using natural stone to build watchtowers of beautiful form and solid structure, displaying a strong regional character. Within this building craft, the backhand masonry technique is highly developed and striking.
Square, pentagonal, octagonal and tridecagonal towers
Towers come in square, five-, eight- and thirteen-sided forms, the square being by far the most common; more sides mean harder junctions.
Reverse-handed coursing
Stones are laid reversed so each course bears on the one below, locking the wall without mortar.
Quarrying, dressing and coursing
The tradition of stacking dressed stone applies structural principles to build tall, well-shaped towers with every stone shaped to its place.
Setting the base and truing the faces
Knife-like corners and straight faces depend on truing each course as the tower rises, since error accumulates to the top.
The towers spreading across eastern Tibet
From the Sui and Tang the tower form spread across western Danba and eastern Tibet, where Danba still holds the greatest concentration.
From fortress to dwelling
The same stacking craft built both watchtowers and family storehouses, which is why it survived.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Danba sits at the core of the Jiarong Tibetan area, its ancient watchtowers dense enough to be counted by the county: according to 2004 statistics, the county as a whole has 562 surviving ancient watchtowers, leading the nation and the world in number, concentration, and completeness of type. In form they divide into quadrangular, pentagonal, octagonal, and tridecagonal types, the quadrangular being the most common; builders use the stone-stacking craft of natural stone, so the tower edges are straight as if cut, the walls smooth, and the bodies thick and heavy, standing aloft despite great age. In distribution, the watchtowers here have a history traceable to the Qin and Han, became greatly prevalent after the Sui and Tang in western Danba and the entire eastern-Tibet region and have been handed down without break, linking up with other eastern-Tibet watchtower clusters. Danba is a multi-ethnic area predominantly of Jiarong Tibetans; here the watchtower serves both as village fortification and as family dwelling, so the stone-laying handcraft has remained attached to daily life and has never been interrupted.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Watchtower Building Craftsmanship · Watchtower Building Craftsmanship · Watchtower Building Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
The Tibetan watchtower-building craft extant in Danba is a living fossil of the Tibetan historical culture of the region, possessing incomparable historical, cultural, and scientific research value. With social development, the formerly relatively closed agrarian civilization has been continuously impacted by modern civilization; few craftsmen in Danba can still master the stone-masonry watchtower-building craft, and the ancient Tibetan folk building craft is on the verge of being lost, urgently needing rescue and protection.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Guoluozheqiu 04-1916
- Qimibadan
- Wang Guoyue
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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