Folk houses are the earliest and the most basic type of buildings that human being have created. It can be said that there are folk houses wherever people live. However，due to the differences in natural and social environments，the folk houses of different regions，cultures and ethnic groups have also shown various appearances. Due to the difference in natural environments，the existing Bai dwellings can be roughly divided into two types：mountain style and flatland style. Among them，the mountain dwellings inherit the technical characteristics of the local buildings，mainly represented in the stilt structure and log-cabin constructions；the flatland houses are dominated by the courtyard layout of the column-and-tie and post-and-lintel structures，and are deeply influenced by Han architecture.

From archaeological evidence，the types of early buildings in Dali area were very diverse. As far as folk buildings are concerned，caves，stilt houses，log-cabin houses，post-and-lintel houses，and column-and-tie constructions have all been discovered. The architecture in the Neolithic Age，the Bronze Age，and the Qin and the Han dynasties has already been covered in Chapter 1 of this book. In the Dali area of the Tang dynasty，the folk houses were described in Volume Ⅷ，“Customs in Yunnan”，of Fan Chuo's A History of Yunnan .“Every folk house is nestling under a mountain，and built into to two stories like Han buildings. At one side is a barn built on stilts several meters above the ground in order to avoid voles. The upper story has a roof like carriage hood”. It can be seen that the common form of folk houses at that time was being set in a hillside with two stories and with eave galleries like the Han buildings in the inland areas. There were no side rooms and the courtyards were laid out like a hash（＃）. Barns of stilt constructions were built outside of the courtyard. This kind of structure is quite similar to the buildings with an eaves gallery. After the Ming dynasty，the central government implemented a large-scale Han-assimilation policy in Yunnan. Residential houses in the Dali area had more characteristics in common with Han dwellings. It can be speculated that with the entry of a large number of Han immigrants，the courtyards with side rooms and the square courtyards which are usual today had already become the most common form of residence for the Bai people in the Ming dynasty.

In the 1990s，the author visited the Xishan Mountain in Eryuan County with Professor Li Donghong from Yunnan University for a detailed field study. Most of the houses there were log-cabin structures，commonly known as“timber houses（垛木房）”，and called“Gengzifu（埂子府）”in the local Bai language，meaning“a house built with logs”. Most of the timber houses of the Xishan Bai people were of one layer，and the walls were all built using round or semi-round timbers in a criss-cross pattern. Behind the cornices，the gables on both sides were adducted layer by layer，forming a herring bone sloped roof. There were purlins but no rafters on the roof which was covered with wood battens and pressed with stones to protect against winds. Outside the house were warehouses and livestock stalls of stilt or log-cabin structures，which were quite similar to what was recorded in the A History of Yunnan （《蛮书》）. Each family of the Xishan Bai people usually lived in one single room，with a fire pit in the middle of the room as the center of family activities. This type of house would use a lot of wood in construction，had very limited living space and was vulnerable to fire. Therefore， with the implementation of the government housing reform policy in recent years，it has gradually been abandoned by the local Bai people.

Compared with mountain dwellings，the structure of the Bai people's houses in the flatlands are much more complicated and the forms are also very diversified. Specifically，great efforts have been made in the building of large-scale courtyards in Xizhou of Dali，either in the layout design or the choice of decorative materials，which can be said to represent the highest level of the Bai people's residential architecture. Therefore，this paper intends to take the Bai folk houses in the flatland areas as the main examples，and briefly summarize and explain the characteristics of the layout，structure and decorative art，so as to better explore the unique regional characteristics and ethnic style of the Bai architecture. kLxUOfgu1mdUkeby4bW3e2vtDvnQsSaB/n2Z/w6RIr6Wjy94bo8vBbw9HURkW+DF