To build a Dawu House, the owner will entrust a Lama—the Tibetan word for Buddhist abbe—or a Living Buddha to make an augury on the lucky day the project begins. Upon construction, relation and friends of the owner come and help. They use a lot of white fine stones to composite a beast caput on the highest wall of the house, in pray of breeding. On completion of the house a fire is started, and at a séance ceremony in the 9th month of Tibetan calendar every year, the owner brushes outer walls new and white to represent holiness and luck.
A completed Dawu House usually costs 200,000 to 300,000 yuan, and may reach a million if the owner can afford it. Most of the budget is spent on ornaments. Since the government has launched a policy on protection of wide wood, the cost will probably go even higher. According to travel notes of a tourist who visited an unfinished Dawu House completed four years ago, the sculpting carpenter there said he needed another 2-3 years. In other words, the house will take 7 years to complete. What a work!
By Liu Rong
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