Danba Diaolou World Cultural Heritage, the introduction of Danba Diaolou

Danba Diaolou is a group of buildings located in Danba County, Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China, and is also one of the World Cultural Heritage Sites. Towers were built in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and are typical representatives of the Tibetan and Qiang ethnic groups living in the settlements of farmers and herdsmen, reflecting the local history, culture and way of life. There are a total of 23 diaolou buildings in the Danba Diaolou complex, most of which are brick and timber structures built on hillsides, with a height of between four and seven storeys, and some are concrete.

They are arranged in the center of the village and constitute a unique landscape. Towers are generally used by residents, residences and warehouses, and also serve as a defensive function. The internal design of the watchtower is unique, and there are archery mouths, stone mouths, digging holes and peepholes, etc., which are very practical.

Danba Diaolou is one of the few architectural groups in southern China that is listed as a world cultural heritage, and is known as "one of the most mysterious, primitive and precious human cultural heritage in the history of world architecture". It is not only an important tourist attraction in Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, but also an important cultural heritage with extremely high historical, cultural and artistic value.

Danba watchtowers, mainly concentrated in Sichuan Province Danba County on both sides of the river valley, with a group of three or five echoing each other, there are also like the Suopo thirteen corners of the tower. In the place where the watchtowers are concentrated, dozens of watchtowers are undulating, forming a magnificent watchtower group. Each of the Danba watchtowers has withstood a hundred years of wind and rain, and the edges and corners stand majestically.

The most watchtowers in Suopo Township are also the most famous, there are the world's most concentrated ancient towers group, a total of 84, can be called the towers museum, have the reputation of "the hometown of a thousand towers".

According to historical records, the history of human activities in Danba can be traced back to 5,000 years ago, and a multi-tribal ethnic group has lived and multiplied here for a long time. The ancient towers scattered throughout the territory of Danba are the witnesses of the historical development of the ethnic groups living here.

The watchtower began to develop and prevail in the Qiang area as far as the Han Dynasty, and was built by the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty when he pacified the large and small Jinchuan. In the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, Danba has been towers to five generations later, towers construction technology has been mature. There are 260 Diaolou in Danba, and it is said that there are nearly 10,000 in the heyday, which can not be completed without a lot of manpower and financial resources.

The Qiang architecture is most famous for watchtowers, stone houses, rope bridges, plank roads and water conservancy weirs.

The Qiang language calls the watchtower "Deng cage". As early as 2000 years ago, the Book of the Later Han Dynasty'There is a record of the Qiang people "living in the mountains, building stones for houses, and the high ones are more than ten zhang". Towers are mostly built next to village houses, with a height of between 10 and 30 meters, to defend against enemies and store grain, firewood and grass.

The watchtower has four corners, hexagonal and octagonal forms. Some are as high as thirteen or fourteen floors. The building materials are stone flakes and yellow clay.

The base of the wall is 135 meters deep and is made of stone flakes. The inside of the stone wall is perpendicular to the ground, and the outside is slightly inclined from bottom to top. The construction is not drawn, hanging wire, and column support, all relying on superb skills and experience.

The building is solid and durable. In 1988, the ruins of an ancient castle of the Ming Dynasty "Yongping Fort" found in Yong'an Village, Qiang Township, Beichuan County, Sichuan Province, are still well preserved after hundreds of years of ups and downs.

The Qiang are an ancient people. According to research, the ancestors of the Qiang people were in Gansu and Qinghai. Many important figures in Chinese history are Qiang people, such as Emperor Yan, Dayu, Xia Qi, King Wen of Zhou, King Wu of Zhou, Jiang Ziya, etc.

The Qiang people seen today moved to the upper reaches of the Min River during the Qin and Han dynasties, and changed from nomadic life to farming and settlement, and have multiplied from generation to generation. The Qiang people have a language but few written languages, and their national culture is mostly passed down from generation to generation through oral transmission.

Qiang people are good to assemble and live, several families are connected as a piece, form a Qiang village, each village must have more than ten meters high Qiang style watchtower, can not only climb to look, but also can defend against the enemy, there is the tendency of easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Legend has it that in the past Jiarong Tibetan area, all families with boys had to build a watchtower, and this wind continued, gradually forming the "country of a thousand towers". In fact, in ancient times, in order to protect the village from invasion, the Tibetans dealt with the war between the tribes that was the real reason for the formation of the ancient carving group.

The ancient watchtower is a masterpiece of Jiarong Tibetan architecture, which has a history of thousands of years. The building age of Gujie is from Tang Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, the scale is large, the types are diverse, the architectural skills are superb, and it has extremely high aesthetic, sociological, historical, and national cultural values.

They are outstanding and extremely precious architectural cultural and artistic relics of ancient China. Compared with the masonry structure system of ancient buildings in Western countries, the biggest feature of ancient Chinese architecture is the use of wood structure system. Therefore, before 2,000 years ago, the ancient stone towers that existed in the Hengduan Mountains were very precious.

It can be said that this kind of ancient stone building is one of the most outstanding buildings in the world, and it is another precious cultural heritage that the Chinese nation has contributed to the world.