Abstract
The sustainability of the human settlement space environment is an eternal subject of human exploration. There hides the idea of human settlement space in an externally displayed material environment. This paper takes Dai villages in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan as the research object. Dai villages are the place where the ancestors of Dai people live, produce, and collectively construct human settlement, production, and spirit. Taking field investigation data and maps of Dai settlement areas as data sources, this paper explores Dai people’s view of human settlement space, analyzes the spatial cultural connotation of Dai villages, and the concept of sustainable human settlements ecology through the analysis of the factors of the villages’ spatial form. The survey results are as follows: (1) the villages are usually located at river valleys and basin areas, which are characteristic of facing the sun and near the water, embodying the persevering ecological concept of “adapting to local conditions and coexisting with nature”. (2) Dai people are one of the earliest “rice-growing nationalities”. Dai people’s settlements have formed a sustainable human settlement ecological space and the spatial pattern of “water-forest-field-village” is an organic whole. (3) The combination of Dai’s primitive religious ecology and Southern Buddhist culture has formed the characteristic of “advocating nature and Buddhism” and a unique concept of settlement space.
Highlights
Village is the basic way of human existence
It is found that Dai villages are the crystallization of the wisdom of Dai people, an integral system, plurality of ecological space environment constructed by a single nation, containing the harmonious coexistence of man and nature, and the primitive clan
The rich water environment of Dai villages can be divided into three categories: (Figure 3) (1) larger rivers, where the village layout is determined by the river trend and the friendliness are closely related to water
Summary
Village is the basic way of human existence. Traditional villages are ancient villages and towns which have relatively complete ancient houses, traditional customs and lifestyles, as well as minority villages with ancient buildings and peculiar customs [1]. By summarizing and comparing the ecological environment of human settlement of Dai nationality, this paper discusses the mechanism of its occurrence and development. Sustainability 2019, 11, 4186; doi:10.3390/su11154186 www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability connotation of the spatial environment of Dai village from three aspects: spatial development, constituent elements, and cultural characteristics of the village. Xishuangbanna is a tropical humid area to the south of the Tropic of Cancer It has a unique geographical location and topography, which gives the area large solar radiation, long sunshine, abundant light energy, and abundant heat. The research sites above are typical Dai villages, and the spatial texture and ecological environment are preserved intact, which provides a good field investigation sites for this study
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