Type and Spread of Hakka Earth Building
There are many different types of Earth Buildings in the Hakka area. The most
popular types are the Round, Square, and Five-Phoenix Earth Buildings. The following
pattern are being observed among Hakka Earth Buildings:
1. In the early Hakka development areas and core Hakka culture areas like Ning
Fah, Shang Hang, South JiangSi, Ka Ying, Moi Yen, we seldom see the gigantic Round,
and Square Earth Buildings. These types of building tend to exist in Hakka culture
border area, or Ming, Qin dynasty era onward in larger economic, and/or larger
population Hakka villages.
2. In early Hakka development areas and core Hakka culture areas, the most popular
types are the Five-Phoenix buildings and other Peng Fang(Deng Xiao "Peng",
"fang"-room). Five-Phoenix buildings are also known as Surround Dragon
Buildings.
3. The open-type Peng Fang tends to be the newer trend of Hakka houses. There
are few open-type Peng Fang built before Qin dynasty.
Beside the above types, there are also other types such as Pak Kwua(as in Yin
Yang "Pak" "Kwua"), Half-Round, Shoe-Horse type etc.
The largest concentration of Earth Buildings are in the Western Fukien, Eastern
Kwangtung, and South JiangSi delta area covering more th