In Tujia shanzhai, it is a festival for people in Manzhai to build houses. Building a house is not easy, which is one of the major events in life. Usually help each other, not to mention, the day before the auspicious day, everyone got together, a pumpkin and a few pounds of taro are gifts, and more importantly, help. Distant relatives and neighbors have come, especially the hostess's family should specially invite guests, pick rice, brag and fight, and talk about certain ostentation and extravagance. On an auspicious morning, after breakfast, people waited on the foundation of the new house. The girder is wrapped in red cloth, and both ends are connected by "Huanglong" (a big straw rope with bamboo poles as ribs in the middle). It extends left and right in the diagonal direction, and many people pull the "Huanglong" to prepare for the battle. After the ceremony of Master Palm Pulse, he said, "Get up!" At the beginning of the Liang Dynasty, firecrackers sounded and trombones sounded ... The hardest and busiest people were those who carried the beam. At both ends of the girder, there is a man carrying the girder. If the new house is built by two brothers, then these two people represent the two brothers respectively. There is a saying that "whoever gets the girder first will start first", so scrambling has become the theme. Because the length of the girder exceeds the width of the arranger's room, it is impossible to walk straight, so it can only be tilted, with one end high and one end low. No one will let anyone, and it will last for a long time. Because no one can decide, it depends on the joint efforts of all. The girder is capped, and the palm master also has a ceremony, saying blessings, throwing beams, and hanging all the colored cloth sent by relatives ... This is a very important ceremony and the climax of building activities.
After the house shelves are set up, slats, purlins and nails are hung. Nailing is also called short water, and it is also a technical job. It should be noted that the cornice should be straight, especially the two ends should not sag, and a little upward is allowed. Then the water surface, from the eaves of the three hanging pillars to the overhangs, should be slightly upturned to form an upward parabola. Only a skilled master dares to have such a masterpiece, so beautiful that the rain cannot flow back. Tiling is also very particular. Rich people build inch tiles, usually half tiles, at least one third. Next is the cornice. Generally, when burning ceramic tiles, it is necessary to specially burn some groove bricks that are longer than ordinary ceramic tiles and specially make cornices. Then cover the eaves tiles tightly to increase the weight, so as not to be exposed to the sun by the mountain wind. Finally, the ridge tile should be spread several more layers, mainly to increase the weight. The ridge tile should be shaped, high in the middle and upturned at both ends to form two saddles. The technique of covering tile is embodied in the arrangement of ridge tile. It is not easy to have two drums and two gongs in the middle ridge and three or four tiles in the tail ridge. The most common mid-ridge is folded into a pin shape, and the back is three or four layers of servant tiles. Depending on the financial resources of the host family, it is necessary to stack one, two and three layers of vertical tiles to form a high back, which is not only beautiful, but also very imposing. Large families will also use tung oil lime to sit on the middle ridge, side ridge and cornice to create a black and white landscape on the roof. In order to increase the light in the house, some people will specially fire trough bricks or cover bricks. The bright tiles of covered tiles have special requirements for the rafters, which must be bright (that is, two narrow rafters bear all the tiles). Sinan Zhou Jia Salt Company uses bright rafters, and their tiles are not only larger than ordinary tiles, but also have patterns.
The houses built by Tujia people, because of their special layout, structure, modeling and various ceremonies, constitute the characteristic culture of Tujia folk houses.
Diaojiaolou is one of the characteristics of Tujia folk houses. There are generally two diaojiao buildings in the wing, that is, the part that highlights the street, and the width depends entirely on the terrain. There are two forms of diaojiao building, one is column type, that is, all the stigma of diaojiao building fall to the ground, and each stigma is a whole; One is hanging lanterns, that is, the hanging part is a single lantern frame, which makes Qi and the foundation of the main house form a plane. If the wooden building is built by the river, only the first column can be used for hanging feet. But there is a difference between "true through column" and "false through column". The "true through column" is a whole, whether it is two feet or three feet. The "false through column" is connected in the middle and is formed by connecting two or three. Some diaojiao buildings along the river are very high and dangerous, and their names are too high. There is no such long wood, you have to pick it up. The joint technology is generally tenon-joint external hoop type. Especially for flood control, it is necessary to add bracing wood at different angles. This kind of high-column diaojiao building near the river is a masterpiece of Tujia ancestors' struggle against floods and nature.