Yanban (Slate) Lane By:JIANG HAO TIAN
The lane was constructed from
slate and is lined with sculptures, pottery, and other arts telling ancient
tales of weaving maids, brave hunters, and aging headmen.
The entrance to these stone slab houses is very low, requiring most
people to bend over to enter. Within the houses there are no cement pillars. The
size of the house is decided by the number of people in the family, with larger
houses for larger families and vice versa.
Additionally, there is a custom that when someone in the family passes
on, they are buried in the ground under the stone slab house and covered with
dirt until the earth is flat again. Of all the stone slab architectures in
Taiwan, only the ones in Wutai have been untouched and unchanged, maintaining
traditional methods of usage. Thus they are important artifacts of the past.