The architecture of Bhutan

·期刊原文
The architecture of Bhutan
David Nock
The Architectural Review
Vol.198 No.1186
Dec 1995
pp.78-81
COPYRIGHT EMAP Business Publishing Ltd. (UK) 1995

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Bhutan's isolation, enforced by its government, has conserved its
architectural heritage. Despite this, Western technology is
beginning to appear and may threaten its continuity.
Bhutan's remarkable indigenous architecture has clear
connections with that of Tibet. Traditional building and
construction methods are still practised together with some use of
modern materials and styles, though this is restrained by government
policy. Until the late 1950s, Bhutan kept itself isolated from the
rest of the world, but since the early '60s the country has
undergone a cautious programme of modernisation. Gradually opening
its doors to the outside world, it issues only 2500 tourists visas
each year.
Buddhism, introduced from India to Bhutan(1) in the eighth century,
has remained the principal religion and philosophy ever since.
Buddhism is of such fundamental importance that all artistic
endeavour has a religious significance and iconography(2). Every
building in Bhutan has in one way or another some religious use or
reference and even the most humble residence has space for a temple.
New construction is accompanied at each stage by religious
ceremonies,(3) and special presentations are made to the mason and
carpenter (there is a superstitious belief that if these craftsmen
are not given due honour, their retaliatory prayers can bring about
collapse of the building(4)), and pujas offered for the prosperity
of the inhabitants. Rituals are followed by general festivities.
The Bhutanese village
Bhutanese villages built along the sides of the mountains look over
terraced rice fields and fast-flowing rivers, their isolation
emphasised by the wild terrain and the absence of vehicles. In
autumn, their roofs are covered with red chillis laid out to dry in
the sunshine. The typical village contains several residential
buildings, a lhakhang (or village temple), perhaps some small shops
and a bar, all arranged in an arbitrary fashion. Around the lhakhang
there are prayer wheels, and in strategic places about the village
there are tall poles for the prayer flags. Each time the wheel turns
or the flag flaps in the wind, a prayer is given to the gods.
The rural house
Farmhouses, sometimes rising three storeys, are often surprisingly
large in extent. Traditionally, the ground floor, which is easily
inundated during periods of heavy rain, is used to shelter the
animals during the cold winter months. The first floor, reached by a
stair cut from a tree trunk, is given over to the family's living
quarters where there is a large smoky kitchen with a fireplace (but
no chimney), up to five sparsely furnished rooms and an altar. The
second floor is an open and ventilated space under the roof where
the summer's harvest is laid out to dry.
In western Bhutan the typical structure has solid rammed-earth
walls, about 600mm thick, that enclose the ground floor and part of
the first floor. In central and eastern districts, rammed earth is
replaced by solid stone walls. Remaining walls are composed of
timber frame covered with mud render, or wattle and daub, and
elaborately detailed windows. The building is capped with ornate
eaves with the roof poised on timber stilts. Rural construction,
unlike urban, is not subject to building regulations, though timber
royalties are due to the government. Design and drawings are usually
done by the carpenter or stonemason.
Tradition has been affected recently by a Swiss programme of aid,
which has introduced domestic improvements such as the chimney and
solar collectors for hot water and electricity. Show houses, which
demonstrate these advantages, are being built in the bigger villages
throughout Bhutan.
The capital
Construction in the capital, Thimphu, is subject to planning and
building permission from the city corporation. Private firms of
architects hardly exist, and plans and specifications are completed
by the works and housing department architects.
Regulations demand strict adherence to existing limits on height and
indigenous forms. (The present King, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, takes a
personal interest in development proposals.) But although the
government's cautious approach to modernisation has largely
protected the capital's architecture from Western influence, it is
beginning to be undermined by the introduction of concrete, which is
being used by Indian contractors to replace stone and rammed
earth.(5) The results are unfortunate. Attempts to imitate intricate
timber window and eaves detailing in concreto is unsurprisingly
awful, and poor quality control has resulted in cracking and
staining.
Dzongs
Dzongs, or fortified monasteries, were constructed on strategic
sites during the reign of Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyel (1594-1651),(6)
and are still religious and secular centres. They usually house a
central main temple, or utse - a square-based tall structure
surrounded by the religious and administrative buildings. The plan
can become complex (as at Tongsa) with several courtyards surrounded
by a labyrinth of small temples, sleeping quarters for the monks and
district administration.
The prevailing architecture is reminiscent of Tibet.(7) Battered
stone whitewashed walls of considerable thickness (often 2m at the
base) evoke eternity and unity with nature. A peripheral wall with
one entrance encloses the entire complex and once provided
protection from attack (in the way that the medieval castles of
Europe were fortified). A red band encircling the top indicates a
religious site. The flat roof, also typical of Tibet, is here
covered by an extra pitched roof because of heavier annual rainfall.
From a distance, the hovering roof appears weightless, but it is a
massive superstructure held in place by the weight of hefty trusses
constructed from solid timber in continuous lengths. Once the roof
covering was timber shingles (weighed down with large stones), but
this been replaced with sheets of corrugated iron.
Internally, stone walls are rendered with mud and whitewashed or
prepared for murals; floors of local wood were formerly of popular
and cypress, and are now of Himalayan blue pine. Elaborately
decorated carpentry, until recently assembled without nails,
includes the rabse, the wondrously carved enclosed balcony that
projects like a mirador from the upper part of the building.
The future
So far, Bhutan's isolationist policy has conserved its unique
architectural heritage, but its doors are now ajar. Change, if
controlled, can clearly be of benefit to the community but the
problems modernisation can cause is evident in other parts of the
Himalayas - notably in Srinagar, Kashmir,(8) where replacing
traditional structures with reinforced concrete buildings has had
unfortunate aesthetic and cultural, as well as physical and
economic, effects. Bhutan has not yet reached this stage, but the
problem has started to show.
A sensitive and realistic approach to the introduction of some
modern materials is obviously desirable in Bhutan, because the
indiscriminate and Uneducated use of inappropriate materials can
only bring architectural destruction in its wake.
1 Bhutan, a Himalayan kingdom of 46 600[km.sup.2], is east of Nepal
and between Tibet and India. It has about 1 400 400 inhabitants.
2 Francoise Pommaret-Imaeda, 'Auspicious Symbols and Luminous
Colours'. UNESCO Special Edition Summer/Autumn 1983 No. 35
3 Interview with Singye Dorji of the Bhutanese Special Commission
for Cultural Affairs (SCCA). November 1992
4 Rigzin Dorji, 'Spiritual Living; Enthusiastic Enjoyment, UNESCO
Special Edition op. cit.
5 Philip T Denwood, Bhutan and its Architecture. Objets et Mondes
xvi 4, 1974
6 Rigzin Dorji, UNESCO Special Edition op. cit.
7 Philip T Denwood, UNESCO Special Edition op. cit.
8 Randolph Langenbach, The Earthquake Resistant Mud and Brick
Architecture of Kashmir. Sixth Conference on the Conservation of
Architecture, Las Cruces, New Mexico, October 1990.