In
archaeology and
anthropology, a 'long house' or 'longhouse' is a type of long, narrow, single-room building built by peoples in various parts of the world including
Asia,
Europe and
North America.
Many were built from timber and often represent the earliest form of permanent structure in many cultures. Types include the
Neolithic long house of Europe, the
Medieval Dartmoor longhouse and the
Native American long house.
Europe
A reconstructed Viking Age house.
In archaeology there are two European longhouse types that are now extinct.
★ The
Neolithic long house type was introduced with the first farmers of central and western Europe around 5000 BCE—7000 years ago.
★ The Germanic cattle farmer longhouses emerged along the southwestern North Sea coast in the third or fourth century BC and might be the ancestors of several medieval house types such as the Scandinavian ''langhus'', the English, Welsh and Scottish longhouse variants and the German and Dutch ''
Fachhallenhaus''.
The medieval longhouse types of Europe of which some examples have survived are among others:
★ The Scandinavian or
Viking ''Langhus''
★ The southwest England variants in
Dartmoor and Wales
★ The northwest England type in Cumbria
★ The Scottish Longhouse, "
Black house" or ''taighean dubha''
★ The Frisian ''Langhuis''
★ The French ''longère'' or ''maison longue'' (with different versions from different origins)
The Americas
In North America two groups of longhouses emerged. The
Native American long house of the tribes usually connected with the
Iroquois in the northeast and an unrelated type used by many tribes long the west and northwest Pacific coast of North America.
In south America the
Tucano people of Columbia and northwest Brazil traditionally combine a household in a single long house.
Asia
ancient Mumun pottery period culture
In
Daepyeong, an
archaeological site of the
Mumun pottery period in
Korea long houses have been found that date to circa 1100-850 B.C. Their layout seems to be similar to those of the Iroquois of America.
Taiwan
Maybe the long house is an old building tradition among the people of
austronesian origin or intensive contact. The
austronesian language group seems to have spread to south east Asia and the pacific islands as well as
Madagascar from the island of
Taiwan. Groups like the
Siraya of ancient Taiwan did built long houses and practiced head hunting as did for example the later Dayaks of Borneo.
Borneo longhouse
A Modern Iban Longhouse in Kapit Division
Many of the inhabitants of the Southeast Asian island of
Borneo (now Kalimantan), the
Dayak, live traditionally in buildings known as a longhouse, ''Rumah panjang'' in Malay, ''rumah panjai'' in
Iban. Common to most of these is that they are built raised off the ground on stilts and are divided into a more or less public area along one side and a row of private living quarters lined along the other side. This seems to have been the way of building best accustomed to life in the
jungle in the past, as otherwise hardly related people have come to build their dwellings in similar ways. One may observe similarities to South American jungle villages also living in large single structures. The design is elegant: being raised, flooding presents little inconvenience. The entry could double as a canoe dock. Being raised, cooling air could circulate as well as have the living area above ground where any breeze is more likely. Livestock could shelter below at night when their security might be a concern.
In modern times many of the older longhouses have been replaced with buildings using more modern materials but of similar design. In areas where flooding is not a problem, beneath the longhouse between the stilts, which was traditionally used for a work place for tasks such as threshing, has been converted into living accommodation or has been closed in to provide more security.
The layout of a traditional longhouse could be described thus:
Along the whole length of the building runs a wall placed near the middle. The one side would seem like a corridor or hall from one end to the other, while the other side is blocked from public view by the wall.
Behind this wall lay the private units, ''bilik'', each with a single door for each family. These are usually divided from each other by walls of their own and contain the living and sleeping spaces. The kitchens, ''dapor'', sometimes reside within this space but are quite often situated in rooms of their own, added to the back of a ''bilik'' or even in a building standing a little away from the longhouse and accessed by a small bridge due to the fear of fire, as well as reducing smoke and insects attracted to cooking from gathering in living quarters..
The corridor itself is divided into three parts. The space in front of the door, the ''tempuan'', belongs to each bilik unit and is used privately. This is where rice can be pounded or other domestic work can be done. A public corridor, a ''ruai'', basically used like a village road, runs the whole length in the middle of the open hall. Along the outer wall is the space where guests can sleep, the ''pantai''. On this side a large veranda, a ''tanju'', is built in front of the building where the rice (''padi'') is dried and other outdoor activities can take place. Under the roof is a sort of attic, the ''sadau'', that runs along the middle of the house under the peak of the roof. Here the ''padi'', other food, and other things can be stored. Sometimes the ''sadau'' has a sort of gallery from which the life in the ''ruai'' can be observed. The pigs and chicken live underneath the house between the stilts.
The houses built by the different tribes and ethnic groups can differ from each other. Houses described as above may be used by the
Iban Sea Dayak and
Melanau Sea Dayak. Similar houses are built by the
Bidayuh, Land Dayak, however with wider verandas and extra buildings for the unmarried adults and visitors. The buildings of the
Kayan,
Kenyah,
Murut, and
Kelabit used to have fewer walls between individual ''bilik'' units. The
Punan seem to be the last ethnic group that adopted this type of house building. The
Rungus of Sabah in north Borneo build a type of longhouse with rather short stilts, the house raised three to five feet of the ground, and walls sloped outwards.
A lot of place names in
Sarawak still have the word "Long" in their name and most of these still are or once were longhouses. Some villages like Long Semado in Sarawak even have airfields of their own. Regions with long houses are for example
Ulu Anyut and
Ulu Paku in Sarawak. Another long house is the
Punan sama.
Siberut
A traditional house type on the island of
Siberut, part of the
Mentawai Islands some 130 kilometers (81 mi) to the west off the coast of
Sumatra (''Sumatera''),
Indonesia is also described as a longhouse. Some five to ten families may live in each, but they are organised differently on the inside.
Vietnam
The
Mnong of
Vietnam also have a tradition of building long houses. In contrast to the jungle versions of Borneo these sport shorter stilts and seem to use a veranada in front of a short (gable) side as main entrance.
Nepal
The 'Tharu people' are
indigenous people living in the
Terai plains on the border of
Nepal and
India. A smaller number of Tharus live in India, mostly in
Champaran District of
Bihar and in
Nainital District of
Uttar Pradesh.
[1]
The Tharu live in
longhouses which may hold up to 150 people. The longhouses are built of mud with
lattice walls
[2] They grow
barley,
wheat,
maize, and
rice, as well as raise animals such as chickens, ducks, pigs, and goats. In the big rivers, they use large nets to fish.
[3]
Because the Tharu lived in isolation in
malarial
swamps until the recent use of
DDT, they developed a style of decorating the walls, rice containers and other objects in their environment. The Tharu women transform outer walls and
verandahs of their homes into colorful paintings dedicated to
Lakshmi, the
Hindu goddess of prosperity and fertility.
See also
★
Indonesian architecture
★
Igloo
★
Tipi
★
Dualchas Building Design, a Scottish architecture practice involved in reviving the Scottish Highland longhouse form
★
wigwam
Notes and references
{{FootnotesSmall|resize=
1. The Tharu Page
2. Photo of building a wall
3. Gurkas, Brahmans, Cchetris, Tharu
Bibliography
For the Longhouses in Sarawak on Borneo these books were used as sources among others:
★ Morrison, Hedda. [1962] (Fifth impression 1974). ''Life in a Longhouse''
- Borneo Literature Bureau Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. Printed in Honk Kong by Dai Nippon Printing Co.(Int.) Ltd. - with translations to Malay, Iban and Chinese (''Pendiau Dirumah Panjai - Kehidupan Di-Rumah Panjang'').
Short introduction text followed by the photo section (ca. 170) with quite detailed descriptions to each photo in the four languages.
★ Dickson, M.G. [1962] (Third edition (revised) 1968).''Sarawak and its People''
- Borneo Literature Bureau. Printed in Honk Kong by Dai Nippon Printing Co.(Int.) Ltd.
Basic school book keeping the language simple and explaining things so children unaware of the world outside of their village can easily understand. Yet, as school books often are, very rich in information. On page 100 is a drawing of a longhouse (cut open) with a detailed description. Some of the photos are from Hedda Morrison - see her book "''Life in a Longhouse''"
Further reading
★
Inside Austronesian Houses: Perspectives on domestic designs for living with long sections on Borneo longhouses.
★
Population listing of some of the ethnic groups of Sarawak, Malaysia.
★
Borneo (Kalimantan) Kenyah-Kayan traditional art.
★ Robert J. Barrett (file dated
6 May 2004),
"Space, repetition and collective interlocution: Psychiatric interviews in a Borneo longhouse" (pdf format). ''Communication & Medicine'' 1(1) (2004), pp. 25–34.
Dense study of schizophrenia, but includes two pages of "2. Longhouse architecture: Ruai, bilik and sadau", with a plan view and elevation view; and detailed references.
★
Penom, a longhouse with sketches of the
longhouse layout.
★
Royal Ontario Museum longhouse village View a North American longhouse village, Ontario, Canada.
★
★ Exhibitions & Galleries: World Culture Galleries:
Gallery of Canada: First Peoples
★
★
Collections & Research Online image collection.
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