Award: Third Prize

Time: February 18-30, 2004
Place: Si Village, Yanchuan County, Shaanxi, China
Nationality: Han

On the thick sienna earth in the north of Shaanxi Province where there are a lot of hills and dongas thick like a net, caves dug in the hill slopes and fixed with doors and windows are lodges for local residents. These caves are warm in winter and cool in summer, becoming homes for the generations living there happily or sadly.

It is easy to fix and cut earthen caves, but hard to get the inner walls painted, because of basification on them. The paint on the wall easily fell on the ground by the corrosion of wind and rain. When there were a flood or a mountain slide, it would be completely destroyed into pieces. Later, a hoop of brick & stone arcade hole outside the earthen cave were built not only for its fastness but also for its beautiful appearance. With the life standard improving, the building of caves has turned into stone or brick-laying on the flat plain from earth-digging. Brick or stone caves have succeeded the advantages of earthen caves and overcome the defects, being ideal housing for the people there. The building of bungalows and storied houses hasn’t replaces the caves belonging to people in the north of Shaanxi so far. As the saying goes, hooping caves for lodges makes one busy for a whole life. It is a big event to hoop caves for a family in tradition-- how caves are hooped determine the auspice or ill luck for the offsprings. Thus the fortune-teller must be invited to see the hypsography, decide the orientation and the date. Today, the selection of the location tends to be practical, choosing the position exposed to the sun, in the direction of the wind, and easy in transportation and for water taking.