The traditional bamboo house can be divided into three types—Payasangtudi, Mahasati and Henmen. In the past, the bamboo house of the Dai ethnic group could be divided into two types according to social class: officer’s bamboo house and common people’s bamboo house.
The officer’s bamboo house is spacious and bright. It is built in the style of western “gothic construction,” in which the shape of the house is a square and the shape of roof is like a pyramid. The whole bamboo house is supported by 20 to 24 bulky stakes, which are built on the stone block. People always carve religious figures on the stakes. The interior’s shape is simple. The main room in the middle is the guest room. The wing-room is often divided into two or three rooms for the host’s wife and children. The guest room of the officer’s bamboo house is about thirty square meters, which can contain about twenty people.
Compared with the officer’s bamboo house, the common people’s bamboo house is quite narrow. The roof is covered with couch grass. The stake cannot be built on the stone block, and figures cannot be carved on the stake.
The Dai ethnic group has the nice custom that “If a family builds a new house in the village, the other ones will come to give a hand.” The family who want to build a new house always blows ox horn, and then every one in the village will come to help. After the completion of a new house, a ceremony is always held to celebrate. People use this to reward villagers who came to help, and also to exercise. The ceremony is always held at high noon. After the exact time been decided, the elder who presides over the ceremony reads aloud his congratulations, and then announces that people can go upstairs in the new house. In the ceremony, the new house owner also invites male and female singers to sing The Song to Congratulate the New House together.
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