|
Written by National Culture Commission
|
Thai houses in the south are quite similar to those
found in other regions of the country. There are ruan kruang pook (tied
house), ruan kruang sab (wooden house) both of which have undergone
development which
gives the southern people the cement brick house. Their peculiarities
are supporting posts resting on stone slabs to prevent termites attack,
and dampness from the ground seeping through. The space under the house
is rather generous while the roof is set rather low. This design makes
the house better withstand strong winds and rains. The slant of the
extended roof allows rain water to run off the roof quickly and help
the roof to get dry quickly also. The alignment of the supporting posts
and the walls are slanted inwards. The style known as "Elephant
in a urinating posture" is thought to make the house absorb the
impacts of strong winds more effectively, permits easy ventilation and
at the same time protect the ground under the house from collecting
an excessive amount of rain water. The walls are made of wooden boards
arranged in such a way that the upper board overlaps the lower one to
prevent rainwater running through the wall on the inside of the house.
Thai house of the southern region has its longer
side oriented in the east to west direction known in the dialect as
"pluk baan loi wan" meaning setting the along the south to
north direction. Doing so would expose the house to full sun light almost
half a day and also to strong winds which are liable to blow from east
to west directions. The alignment of the granary is the opposite of
that of the house. By setting the longer side of the granary along the
north south direction, the paddy in the granary will get all sun light
it needs to get dry. The granary of cause is more sturdily built than
a regular house.
Thai house in the south is built as a single unit
for one family's living. When the family grows large, another house
is built along the main house together with a platform linking the two
houses into a single unit.
The platform area of Thai house in the south is
small an narrow compared with the same of Thai houses in other regions.
This is probably due to frequent rains in the south and narrow or small
platform helps one to move from one house to other in as short a time
as possible and hence get least wet. In some areas of the south, brick
work or even an earth mound is built to the level of the platform and
use for growing flowers or small plants such as promagrenade, orange
lime, vegetable or perfume wood plants. The roofs of Thai house in the
south come in four major styles i.e. gabled, "panyah" "kabranoh"
and manila.
-----------------------------
Information from: "Rice and
Thai Ways of Life" published by Office of the National Culture
Commission.
|