Hierarchy in Southern Thailand

A Case Study of the Pak Tai Stilt House

Bradley Winograd

ARCH 348: Studies in Vernacular Architecture

Summer 2020

In the Asian southeast, the stilt house has become a unifying language of architecture despite the hundreds of indigenous cultures that live there. While the origins of which culture popularized the stilt house are unknown, there are references of stilt homes that date back to 8th centry Borobudur depicting a gabled house with a thatch roof elevated on tied posts (Figure 3). However, some believe that this may even trace back farther to southern China to an excavation of piles that date back to 6th century BCE.1

One of the largest ethnic groups to settle the southeast in the Malay peninsula were the Tai people, a group identified for their language family. Drawn to the plentiful waters and coasts, they settled in what is now southeast China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. Those that moved into Thailand are now referred to as the Pak Tai or southern Thai peoples. 2

Thailand today is a diverse nation of architecture, vernacular and modern all spanning from the ancient roots of the stilt home. In this paper, the focus will be on the southernmost Pak Tai and how the spread of Buddhism and Islam created a hierarchy among the stilt house and the modern vernacular stilt house of today.

1 Nanta, “Social Change and the Thai House.”

2 Timsuksai and Rambo, “The Influence of Culture on Agroecosystem Structure.”