NIAS HOUSE

As the houses of Indonesia are mostly pile-dwellings, it seems easy to analise that three levels of the space division of the house construction such as substructure / mainstructure / superstructure might be correspond to the symbolic tripartition of the cosmos, namely underworld / humanworld / upperworld. Similarly this symbolic tripartition is sometimes interpreted as double dichotomy; cosmos divided into two parts of divine- and humanworld and divineworld again divided into upper- and underworld as pointed on the Nias house.

In relation to this upperworld / underworld dualism the sacred loft, where sacred objects, heirlooms, money and other important properties are stored, is also widely observed throughout this archipelago. The loft is usualy identified with the domain of gods and it is a taboo to approach there without following fixed order. Generally both who and when can enter there is strictly restricted in accordance with each culture. A special person, i.e. clun's chief, old man, household head, housewife, maiden, etc., can climb up to the place on the special occasion, i.e. harvest fest, funeral etc. after sacrificing a proper animal because the domain might be too sacred and dangerous for the ordinary people. In case there is no loft, the significance of the second floor is almost the same.

Thus wherever we might go in the archipelago, we are sure to find the inhabitants dwell supplementary in the residential area of the house, above which the most profane and untouchable space is occupied by supernatural existence. To compare with the case in Japan, where the space within the roof has symbolically no significance however massively the roof is constructed, the symbolism is focused on the uppermost part of the house in the archipelago. With all the external varieties of the house styles, where is this symbolical homogeneity derived from ?