Why do Hmong houses face north?

Answer 1

From "Household and Marriage in a Thai Highland Society":

The Hmong have been referred to as semi-nomadic people or "migrants of the mountains" (Geddes, 1976), because they move houses or sometimes entire villages every ten to twenty years after stable residence in a particular place. The reasons for such migrations are often complex, ranging from lack of farming lands to social -economic factors such as the desire to join relatives in another settlement or the fear of sickness and diseases.

In their traditional hill environment, the Hmong tend to live in small groups of five to twenty households, and are rarely found in "big agglomerations" (Savina, 1925: 182). Houses are built in a random fashion on a village site without any sense of direction or order. There is no village square, no main street. There may be fence here and there around the village, but this is only to protect a garden or crops from village animals and does not serve as a defence barrier for the settlement. Mickey (1947) also does not mention any fortified walls around the Miao village she studied in Kweichow, southern China. Graham (1937: 22), on the other hand, says that "there were formerly many fortified places… where groups of houses were clustered together for protection". This is further confirmed by Lombard-Salmon (1972: 118) in her historical study of the Miao in Kweichow in the 18th century. Today, however and as one French writer puts it, only scrub forms a natural enclosure for a Hmong village (Anonymous, 1952: 31). A Hmong settlement is a beautiful sight from the distance, but the houses often look like old ruins close- up.

What is striking about Hmong houses is that they are built at random, deliberately to conform to the Hmong beliefs in geomancy and supernatural forces. No two houses are in line or parallel to one another, even when all the buildings have their fronts facing the downward slope. Unlike many Green Hmong whose houses have only one door, the White Hmong houses have two doors and sometimes even three, depending on the people’s need (Chindarsi, 1976: 15; Geddes, 1976: 39; and Lam Tam, 1974: 60). They are variably constructed on earthen floors compressed by the use of water from hewn boards to mud, depending on what is available. Some houses have timber shingles or thatches as roofing covers, and even tiles or corrugated iron for the better – off families.
Nearly all the Hmong houses are rectangular in shape, although some look almost square. There is always a veranda running part of the length of the house, generally used to store firewood. The side door is on the left of the house when looking from the front where another door also exists, although the latter is more often used for the performance of rituals. The door on the front side of the house is called "qhov rooj tag" (khor daung ta), and the door on the left side is referred to as "qhov rooj txuas" (khor daung txua). Which door is used for entering and leaving the house depends on how conveniently it is situated, as there is no sanction against using either door.

A typical house measures about 9x7 metres with the walls reaching 1.6 metres in height, and with the centre of the roof about 4 metres from the ground. Doors are usually 1.8 metres high. Bedrooms often have only door frames no more than 0.5 metre wide, but usually no doors. The bedrooms are located alongside the front of the house, with the beds consisting of raised wooden boards about 0.5 metre above ground. Parents and young children sleep together in the big bedroom while adolescent and grown-up daughters share the second bedroom, and older sons or unmarried male family members occupy a third bedroom further away. A spare raised timber flooring serves as bed for guests and is sometimes found at one end of the house, near the granaries.

Rapoport (1969: 129) suggests that human settlements and house forms are primarily the physical expression of a people’s culture and way of life, even though climatic conditions and building materials or technology may influence where and how a house is constructed. House forms and location cannot be understood in terms of their descriptive value only, but must be related to the shared goals and life values or beliefs of the people living in them. To the Hmong, a house is not only a shelter, but also a place of worship where one’s ancestral cults are observed and protected from outside influences. It is the sanctuary which unites members of a household into an extended family and later confronts all married male members to form their own separate dwellings.

Almost all the houses are simply furnished, with only essential farm tools and household utensils maintained in different places. The buildings are not in line with one another bit because of lack of suitable terrain and deliberate design. The orientation of the house is influenced by the topography of its site as well as by religious and cultural determinants. This settlement pattern also reflects the need of clan affiliates or relatives to stay close to one another for mutual protection and assistance, although a few household heads achieve these objectives by settling among relatives of their wives.

Answer 2

Because the traditonal houses there are huts. It has something to do with the huts being able to dry off in the sun from the rain easier and not rotting.

Answer 3

well my mom was the first one in wisconsin and all of her family includin the distant ones followed her cuz she lyked it there