- 16/04/2020
The shared house spans over 320 square meters and is 20 meters in height, making it larger than the Kon Klor shared house in Kon Tum, which previously held records for the largest shared facility in the Central Highlands.
Recently Kon So Lal was designed to replace the former, lightning-struck communal house in 2015. The communal house was completed and put into operation in July 2017. Materials such as timber, bamboo, and roofing leaves were donated entirely by villagers.
The structure does not have the normal rafters but hires bamboo and rattan instead. The distinct roof is 20 centimeters high, with tapers leaning against each other like one hatchet. Holden planks and bamboo branches are woven together on the inside of the roof to ensure robustness.
Typically this job is handed over to young and powerful guys, who are not afraid of heights. The builders didn't need a blueprint, given the thorough and challenging style. Alternatively, they eyeballed, weighed and labelled every part as they went.
A sun-shaped vegetable fern decorates the house's first wall, staircase, and roof. The emblem reflects ambition for the ethnic Bahnar people, inclined towards the Sun God.
The 12 central wooden pillars are made of resin and white lead tree wood with the width of two circles in the adult neck. They are submerged in a mud bath, along with planks and bamboo, for nearly two years before use to avoid termites.
Similar to community houses in nearby villages, Kon So Lal is the most respected spiritual landmark, and a meeting place for festivals and civic events.
Kon So Lal has nearly 600 inhabitants living in small stilt or mud dwellings, surrounding the communal building that dominates.
Kon So Lal once was Truong Son Dong Range's oldest Bahnar village surrounded by mountains and jungles. Later, the villagers migrated three kilometers away to the new Kon So Lal, but closer to opportunities for transport and growth.
Original article : https://bit.ly/2VycmSL