2. YURT dwelling * Spread over a vast territory from Caspian Sea to central Mongolia , including Turkmen, Uzbeks, Kirghiz of Afghanistan, the Russian Kazzaks, and numerous Mongol tribes. * They are camel herders or horsemen . They depend on sheep for milk, wool, and to some extent meat. * Several millions still follow the traditional nomadic pastoral way of life in spite of governmental attempts at implementing resettlements schemes. * The YURTS is a Turkish word for dwelling : Kherga Afghan Kabitka Russia Ger Mongolia Kirghiz near Urumchi, Djungaria, China [1:157]
3. Yurts of the nomadic Kazakhs of central Asia [2:37] YURT
5. Shelter Details * Yurts for all these people are basically the same: - Circular in plan , made of an open, loose lattice frame of willow wands maybe expanded to build the house and contracted for carrying to next site . - Each lattice or ( Khana ) is made up to some 33 wands. Interior of a yurt showing the lattice structure of the khana (Mongolia) [1:159] YURT
6. - Light poles that have been performed into an arc by steaming are lashed to the frame, which is further stabilized by webbing tension bands, and the poles inserted into a center ring or crown. - The door may be felt mat which can be rolled up , or solid craved wooden door, or a pair of doors with leather hinges. - Once the frame is in place the yurt is covered with thick woolen felt mats made by the women, which are secured with webbing bands or ropes. Kirghiz near Urumchi, Djungaria, China [1:157] YURT
8. * Spatially, yurts are strictly divided by systems similar to Navajo organization: - Yurts entrances are customarily face south-west . - Circulation inside is clockwise . - The interior is divided into quarters ( herders , women , distinguished , men) - In the center of the yurt is the fire , regarded by many Mongols as the protective deity, who must not be disturbed. - The square of the hearth within the circle of the yurt follows the Buddhist principles of male and female symbolism of square and circle . N
10. * The 5 eastern elements of: - Earth (earth floor) - Wood (wood hearth frame) - Metal (iron tripod) - Water (the kettle of water) - Fire (the fire in the hearth) * Chanted in a wild, strained voice the song was redolent of pride of workmanship, joy in the creation of the dwelling, and an appreciation of its beauty of form and fabric. Lesson : The song is a window on the aesthetic of a nomadic people, and an indication of the significance of the myth and legend in confirming indigenous values. YURT
11. Modern Ideas A traditional dwelling as an alternative building design.
13. SYMBOLIC OPPOSITIONS * Societies of all kinds and in every part of the world try to make sense from the surroundings . * The origin of sun , moon , and earth , of animals and plants ; the mysteries of conception , birth , life , and destiny of the souls of the departed, are commonly at the center of man’s religious beliefs and practices. * Fearing the unknown , mastering the known , the world is made somewhat more comprehensible by bringing such observed phenomena within a system .
14.
15. * Signs are used to denote something : an object, a situation, an event specifically, and unequivocally, and they do not under such circumstances carry any additional association. * Symbols are used to connote meanings in addition to those which they may depict; they have associative meaning. SYMBOLIC OPPOSITIONS
16. * Both sign and symbol , to be recognized and understood, must exist within a system: - Door is a sign of entrance but a symbol of birth. - Window is a sign of opening but a symbol of release, broadening perceptions, or eyes of the spirit. - Roof shape is a sign of a house but a symbol of protection, the sky, the deities in their celestial abode.
17. * Signs exist effectively in the present : they denote here and now * Symbols exist in the past, the present, and may imply the future . * Symbols are timeless , their meaning may change, gaining or loosening in force or effectiveness, and taking on new levels of connotation. Arch 222 Dr. Adil Al-Mumin
18. Male & Female Left-hand & Right-hand Sun & Moon Night & Day Good & Evil Life & Death DUALISM are dualities within the experience of all of us. So too are the spatial dichotomies of: - Earth & Sky - Above & below - Front & back - Inside & outside are often related symbolically Arch 222 Dr. Adil Al-Mumin SYMBOLIC OPPOSITIONS
19. * One rectangular room divided a 1/3 of the way along its length by a cross wall creating a dark stable at the lower level and a higher level and better lit room as a living space with floor polished. * A main ridge which spans both spaces is supported at the dividing wall by a pillar . In Berber symbolism the protecting strong beam is male , and the pillar is female . Berber houses in Kabylia, Algeria. * How such dualism is manifest in the dwelling was demonstrated by Pierre Bourdieu in his analysis of the Berber houses in Kabylia, Algeria.
20. * The dark end of the house is where the water vessels are placed, in the stable, where the animals are kept . It is associated with natural : birth, sleep, death, and what is animals. * In contrast, the higher living space is associated with all that is noble : the honor of the household head , his protection of his wife’s virtue. It is associated with cultural . * The main entrance is on the east long wall, the opposite is the female entrance, smaller but set in the wall and illuminated by the main entrance. It is called “ wall of light ”. Berber houses in Kabylia, Algeria.
21. * Wall of light is where the loom is situated, the symbol of women’s creative and domestic activity and the values that her husband protects * Opposite her is the front door, dark against the light of the open west door and called “ wall of darkness ” which is associated with the dark end of the house, the stable. * The interior of the house is the woman’s domain and men are expected to leave it at first light . Man, according to them, is the light of the outside (the true light); woman is the light of the inside. Berber houses in Kabylia, Algeria.
22. ‘ Wall of Light’ (left) meets the hearth wall (Maatka, Algeria) Entrance to the Kabylie house. The stable entrance (right) is to the dark, lower, symbolically female and ‘natural’ end of the dwelling (Algeria). * The light, the wall of light, are linked with all that is “ cultural ”, transformed and created: it is where the meals are cooked, cloths are woven. As the dark, lower, animal, “natural” end of the house is female, so the light exterior, the world proper, is male. Berber houses in Kabylia, Algeria.
24. THE COSMIC DWELLING * In Amazonia and remote region of south America tribes of Indians retain their identities, their lifeways, and beliefs. * The territory stretches between Brazil and Columbia is the home of many Indian tribes, among the Tukanoans. * Tukanoans community houses are of considerable dimensions, thatched with palm leaves, with eaves that sweep close to the ground. Arch 222 Dr. Adil Al-Mumin Tukanoan malocca or community house. The decoration depict pattern perceived under the influence of an hallucinatory infusion. (Vaupes region, Columbia).
25. * Each roof frame is supported on 8 major house posts placed on either side of a central male/female axis. 12 m Male domain Female domain 24 m * In the center of the longhouse is the main social area which is embraced by a ceremonial dance path. Arch 222 Dr. Adil Al-Mumin
26. * All Tukanoans believe themselves to be the children of the Primal Sun, but each group traces its origin to a mythical ancestor, one or other of the largest species of snake, the anaconda . * In mythical time Anacondas swam west up the rivers from the Amazon (the Water Door of the Milk River) stopping at the “waking-up places” where the ancestor of the Tukanoans danced and their homesites were established. * The anaconda journey east to west, corresponded to the path of the sun, and accordingly, the male entrance, facing east, represents the Water Door by which the ancestral Anacondas entered. Arch 222 Dr. Adil Al-Mumin
27. - The womb interior of the house - The family apartments - The heat of the cooking fires - The nourishment of the gardens - The practice location of ritual and ceremonial. - The rectilinear structure of the front of the house. - The anaconda symbols. - The men’s door as Water Door - The river landing and the path that links it with the dwelling All seen as female, and source of the creative power of women All seen as male Arch 222 Dr. Adil Al-Mumin
28. * Vertically is also perceived symbolically: - the roof as Sky - the house posts as Mountains - the floor as Earth - the grave as the Underground. * The Tukanoan concept of the multi-layered ‘cosmic gourd’, and the plan of the Tukanoan community house showing spatial differentiation. Which the shamans, priest-healers, pass through on their trance-travels to the supernatural world. Arch 222 Dr. Adil Al-Mumin
29. * When a member of the group dies, the body is placed in a coffin made from the halves of a canoe and is interred in a chamber off a deep hole below the floor of the house. * While the spirit of the ancestor remains in the house the body decays in its grave but the soul enters a beautifully painted ancestral longhouse, visible only to the shamans and the dead, where the ancestors perceptually dance. * When the name of the deceased is given to a newborn child the spirit is happy for its live again, the soul thriving in a continuity ritual of the ancestral house. Arch 222 Dr. Adil Al-Mumin
30. ORIENTAL ORIENTATION * Among the Sakalva, a tribe on the west coast of Madagascar (maybe if Indonesian descent) use the plan of the house as an astrological calendar. * The terms used of Arabic extraction but also have been noted with some aspects of the Japanese house. * A simple rectangular plan house with a central pole supporting the ridge and orineted North-South. * The months are identified with the corners and two points on each sides of the house, commencing at the NE with Alahmedy, or Aries. * Each corner has 3 days associated with it; each wall point has two (28 in all). Arch 222 Dr. Adil Al-Mumin
![YURT dwelling * Spread over a vast territory from Caspian Sea to central Mongolia , including Turkmen, Uzbeks, Kirghiz of Afghanistan, the Russian Kazzaks, and numerous Mongol tribes. * They are camel herders or horsemen . They depend on sheep for milk, wool, and to some extent meat. * Several millions still follow the traditional nomadic pastoral way of life in spite of governmental attempts at implementing resettlements schemes. * The YURTS is a Turkish word for dwelling : Kherga Afghan Kabitka Russia Ger Mongolia Kirghiz near Urumchi, Djungaria, China [1:157]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)