Rules · Roofs · Materials · Use
Tile for the great, thatch for the rest
Roof the palace with lead and glazed tile; let officials tile only their family temple and their principal hall, sizing their houses by rank; and let common people roof with thatch.
Stone was for the gods: the Khmer built their houses, and even their palaces, of wood, and none survive. Zhou’s account, the reliefs of the Bayon, which show houses raised on posts under steep roofs, and the pottery tiles found round the palace are the evidence for them.
Cite this page Chris Paton, “Tile for the great, thatch for the rest”, The Textbook of Architecture, https://textbookofarchitecture.com/rule/zhou-house-roofs. Text, drawings and models licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.