Long Family Mansion

The Long Family Mansion in Molaovillage, Biancheng Town, integrates the main hall, side rooms, and courtyards into one, forming a unique local form with its unique wooden frame structure. The layout is compact and reasonable, the materials are used properly, the carvings are rough and delicate, the color paintings are bright, the patterns are lifelike, and the architectural craftsmanship is exquisite. Especially the form of five openings is very rare in the Miao inhabited area, which is also a special case. The whole building can be called a typical representative of the ancient Miao residential architecture in the Wuling Mountain area of western Hunan. Its overall layout and architectural structure fully reflect the characteristics of the ethnic group, but it does not lack the absorption and acceptance of Han culture's etiquette knowledge, or knowledge education, such as the configuration of the sealing fire wall, the color painting techniques and patterns, the side room "Wan" character railing, the shape of the tombstone, the inscription and the geomantic omen concept are all fully reflected here. The cow skull hanging in the room silently displays the unique Miao's buffalo sacrifice activity, which witnesses the whole process of the Miao's religious activities with real objects. The Long Family Mansion is an important physical material for studying the social development history, local history, ethnology, ancient architecture, etc. of western Hunan, and it is also an outstanding representative of the integration of Miao and Han cultures. In 2011, the Long Family Mansion in Biancheng was announced as a provincial cultural relics protection unit in Hunan.