Tanean lanjang

Sumenep and eastern Madura

A tanean lanjang is a long yard: a langgar closes its west end, a row of houses stands along the north side facing south, and a row of kitchens faces them across it. The parent household stands at the west end nearest the langgar, and each married daughter’s house is added eastward in the order she was born. What makes it worth building here is that it is not a building. This is the gap the Bali pack named for itself — “a Balinese house is a compound and this models one building” — and here the compound is the subject: the yard is in the part list, the raising order is a family’s over decades, and standing is stated by position and by size at once. The sun in this model is computed for Sumenep, 7.0° S and 113.87° E.

What is built here is the arrangement, not the house. A Madurese house has internal divisions, carving on its door and walls, far more roof forms than three, and large differences between western and eastern Madura — none of which is modelled. Beyond that: the row here stops at seven, where a real tanean can be longer and can branch; the cattle byre, well and granary usually found around one are not built; the kitchens are simplified to a single row; and every metre in this pack is the author’s reading of published plans rather than a measurement.