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Short description of Engganese houses The Engganese word for house is euba. Most conspicuous is the beehive house (euba ekadodio), but this type was not the only one.
Combined with the round houses, one also found rectangular houses. A horizontal plank, which served as a bridge, usually connected the two. One could thus reach the other house without touching the ground. In some cases, as we can see in the house models, [47] a platform was built under the beehive house. Two posts, sometimes with carvings on their upper parts, supported this platform. One can thus state that the old Engganese houses are different from practically all other Indonesian house types. The round shape especially, sometimes called 'beehive' [48] , is notably different from the well-known rectangular houses of the Batak, Toraja, Minangkabau, Malay etc. of insular South-east Asia. Round houses are rare in this part of the world; one also sees them on the Nicobar Islands and Timor, to mention two well-known examples. Indeed, in the literature on Enggano [49], the houses have been compared with Nicobarese houses. This comparison, however, only holds good at a very superficial level. Pillars The simplest shape for the round house, without platform, was in fact just a floor, made of wood from the Afzelia palembanica [50] supported by some (probably eight) poles each approximately 2.50 metres high. The roof was attached directly to the floor, as in a beehive, with rattan leaves on a bamboo or wooden frame. The beehive was probably supported by eight to ten pillars. [51]
Decoration Little is known about the decoration of the rectangular houses, but the round houses contain several interesting details. A wooden bird was attached to the top of the house. The central post [52] , or one of the main posts (where there are two main posts), seems to have been decorated with woodcarvings supporting the floor of the beehive house. [53]
The entrance The small oval wooden doors, each in a wooden frame, were usually also decorated. One finds both floral designs and (human) faces.
The houses could only be entered through these small doors, each just wide enough to crawl through [54]. There wasn't any other opening, not even for smoke to escape. A beehive house could be reached via stairs made from one single tree trunk. A face was carved at the top of the stairs. Pole house Another type of house on Enggano was the 'pole' house or euba kieetebe. [55]
Although this house is mentioned, we have hardly any information about its function. Helfrich [56] classifies this house among the houses for living in, just as the Malay type and the beehive houses. Pigsties Apart from the houses one also found pigsties on Enggano. Both the Museum Nasional in Jakarta and the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde in Leiden own models of these pigsties.
They stood directly on the ground, serving as housing for domesticated pigs. According to our sources the door handles of these constructions were decorated. [57] | |
