Tulou de Fujian

Fujian Tulou

Cultural

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País

China

Inscrito

2008

Región

Asia and the Pacific

Superficie

153 ha

Coordenadas

25.0231°, 117.6858°

Acerca de

El sitio comprende 46 casas de tierra construidas entre los siglos XII y XX a lo largo de un eje de 120 km, en las tierras del interior del estrecho de Taiwán, al sudoeste de la provincia de Fujian. Edificadas en medio de arrozales y plantaciones de tabaco y té, estas casas de tierra de varias plantas, llamadas tulou, podían albergar hasta 800 personas. Su construcción, con fines defensivos, se hizo con arreglo a un trazado circular o cuadrado en torno a un patio central con una sola entrada y con muy pocos vanos en la fachada exterior. Servían de vivienda a la totalidad de los miembros de un mismo y constituían pueblos enteros, que solían llamarse “pequeños reinos familiares” o “pequeñas ciudades prósperas”. Son característicos sus altos muros de adobe rematados por tejados de grandes aleros. Las construcciones más elaboradas datan de los siglos XVII y XVIII. Las edificaciones se repartían verticalmente entre varias familias, que disponían cada una de dos o tres habitaciones por planta. El interior de cada tulou, a diferencia de su austera fachada, estaba diseñado para hacer confortable la vida de sus habitantes y con frecuencia poseía ricas ornamentaciones. Estos edificios se inscriben en la Lista del Patrimonio Mundial por la excepcionalidad de sus dimensiones, sus técnicas tradicionales de construcción y sus funciones. Constituyen un ejemplo único de asentamientos humanos basados en una vida comunitaria y una organización defensiva, en armonía con el medio ambiente circundante.

Valor universal excepcional en inglés

The Fujian Tulou are the most representative and best preserved examples of the tulou of the mountainous regions of south-eastern China. The large, technically sophisticated and dramatic earthen defensive buildings, built between the 13th and 20th centuries, in their highly sensitive setting in fertile mountain valleys, are an extraordinary reflection of a communal response to settlement which has persisted over time. The tulou, and their extensive associated documentary archives, reflect the emergence, innovation, and development of an outstanding art of earthen building over seven centuries. The elaborate compartmentalised interiors, some with highly decorated surfaces, met both their communities’ physical and spiritual needs and reflect in an extraordinary way the development of a sophisticated society in a remote and potentially hostile environment. The relationship of the massive buildings to their landscape embodies both Feng Shui principles and ideas of landscape beauty and harmony. Criterion (iii): The tulou bear an exceptional testimony to a long-standing cultural tradition of defensive buildings for communal living that reflect sophisticated building traditions and ideas of harmony and collaboration, well documented over time. Criterion (iv): The tulou are exceptional in terms of size, building traditions and function, and reflect society’s response to various stages in economic and social history within the wider region. Criterion (v): The tulou as a whole and the nominated Fujian tulou in particular, in terms of their form are a unique reflection of communal living and defensive needs, and in terms of their harmonious relationship with their environment, an outstanding example of human settlement. The authenticity of the tulou is related to sustaining the tulou themselves and their building traditions as well as the structures and processes associated with their farmed and forested landscape setting. The integrity of the tulou is related to their intactness as buildings but also to the intactness of the surrounding farmed and forested landscape – into which they were so carefully sited in accordance with Feng Shui principles. The legal protection of the nominated areas and their buffer zones are adequate. The overall management system for the property is adequate, involving both government administrative bodies and local communities, although plans for the sustainability of the landscape that respect local farming and forestry traditions need to be better developed.