In Meghalaya, Traditional Knowledge Inspires A ‘Living’ Staircase

In the North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU) in Shillong, a special 10-foot tall pavilion features steps that will grow on their own.

Inspired by the Living Root Bridges (LRBs) of the state, this staircase will ultimately be made of the tightly woven roots of the Ficus elastica tree (Indian rubber plant), thereby modelling a concept which could possibly help mitigate the impact of climate change, as we explain below.

The Living Root Bridges are a fascinating, ‘regenerative’ form of bioengineering in which man and nature come together in harmony to connect places across difficult terrain. Geographically, Meghalaya is hilly, with stretches of valleys and highland plateaus, rivers, streams and waterfalls. The LRBs were traditionally built by the Khasi and Jaintia tribes to connect villages across rivers, ravines and gorges.

This form of construction uses no engineering tools, and no two root bridges look exactly the same. Yet this traditional knowledge, passed through word-of-mouth down the generations, has not remained limited to simply being a medium of connectivity, but is also a source of livelihood through tourism, and an inspiration for a new form of architecture.

Traditionally, the making of a root bridge first involves planting a Ficus sapling on the banks of a river, on one or both sides. Once it reaches maturity, the tree’s aerial roots are guided to the other side of the river through the hollowed-out trunk of a betel nut tree, with the support of a bamboo framework.

When the roots reach the other end, they are planted in the soil. As these roots thicken, they produce daughter roots that are similarly trained across the bamboo framework. As these roots continue to grow, people intertwine the roots to initiate inosculation, thereby producing a dense framework.

Taking a leaf out of the process

In NEHU, where the Living Root Pavilion is now growing, a similar process is underway. Saplings of the Ficus tree were planted last year by the Living Bridge Foundation, an NGO that works to conserve the art of making root bridges. According to Morningstar Khongthaw of the foundation, it will take 25 years for the stairway to be fully mature for use.

“Conceptually, the staircase will be similar to a living root bridge,” Khongthaw told IndiaSpend. “The aerial roots of Ficus elastica tree will be guided to make the stairway, and we will keep pruning and guiding the roots to grow in a certain direction…the stairway will build on its own. It is slated to be completed by 2047, and by then one will be able to climb the steps of the pavilion to oversee a lake.”

The pavilion has been designed by researchers of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany who have studied the LRBs extensively. Ferdinand Ludwig, professor for green technologies in landscape architecture, and Thomas Speck, professor for botanics at the University of Freiburg, analysed 74 LRBs and conducted interviews with members of the community who built these bridges to understand the complex root structure. They also took thousands of photographs on the basis of which 3-D models were created. The pavilion project in NEHU has been led by Wilfrid Middleton, a researcher working with Ludwig.

According to TUM, Ludwig and Freiburg also mapped the location of the LRBs for the first time. Khongthaw added that now, the GPS location of 132 LRBs have been mapped, “but there are many more [yet to be mapped]”.

Making buildings future-ready

Ludwig conceptualised a new field of research centred on this approach called Baubotanik, which uses living trees as construction material. The staircase project in NEHU is based on this concept.

“Through the investigation of the traditional Living Root Bridges, we have been able to learn a lot about the conception, approach and practice of the Khasi people,” he told IndiaSpend. “Together, with the Living Bridge Foundation, we aim to transfer this knowledge into modern green architecture.”

Ibynta B. Tiewsoh of the architecture department in NEHU said the project will help them look at living architecture in an urban setting and “how it fits into the context of building along with nature.

“While a similar project has been undertaken by Ludwig in Germany, this is the first time such a collaborative effort has been undertaken here,” she told IndiaSpend.

Ludwig said the NEHU pavilion “is a first step towards merging architecture and trees” in a way that would make cities greener, cooler and more livable. Stone, concrete, asphalt heat up rapidly at high ambient temperatures, so the heat stress is particularly relevant in cities. Plants provide cooling and improve cooling in cities, he said. The Living Root Pavilion, it is therefore expected, will cool down the entire vicinity and bring down the temperature, said Banbhalang Swer, head of the architecture department in NEHU.

“There are three parts of this project: designing, building, and nurturing or growth,” Tiewsoh said. “Architecture students of our university collaborated with students of TUM in the design phase; then another batch of students had hands-on training to make the bamboo framework in the building stage. The Living Bridge Foundation is now monitoring the growth of the Ficus saplings.”

The department is exploring how this can be implemented at different levels in cities and villages, Swer told us. “We will do a primary survey on which soil is suitable and whether other plants can be used--plants that can grow faster,” Swer said.

Ludwig said they developed different approaches to use a high number of young trees to generate “a lot of ecological benefits from the first moment on”, adding that his team has worked on several projects in Germany using European trees.

A source of livelihood

Even as efforts are underway to make buildings future-ready, the decades-, sometimes centuries-old Living Root Bridges are also increasingly becoming a source of livelihood for the local communities through tourism.

Included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site tentative list in 2022, LRBs are an essential part of a traveller’s itinerary in Meghalaya. Over the years, paths leading to living root bridges have seen a rise in the number of homestays and eateries that cater to increasing tourist footfalls.

David Pariat, a local guide in the Nongriat Double-Decker Living Root Bridge in East Khasi Hills, 65 km from Shillong, said that until about four years back there weren’t as many homestays near these villages as there are now. “Local communities have realised that there is an opportunity here and now you will see many such places on your way,” he said.

A 2020 research article in the journal Sustainability elaborated on the interconnectedness between the LRBs and tourism, saying that while the bridges are still used for traditional purposes, there is a regional shift towards tourism. “Wah Thyllong bridge, for example, is visited by hundreds of tourists each day, but is still used by farmers, market sellers, and school students,” the article said.

To adapt to tourism, “bridges are reinforced for tourists’ safety”, the article says. “In the course of further increasing tourism, guest houses are being built, paths to the bridges are adapted or replaced by roads, and farming is scaled down as income is generated from tourism.”

Sustainability is key

Like all good things, however, there must be a line drawn to what extent tourism is allowed to grow, vis-à-vis the root bridges, opined Tambor Lyngdoh, secretary of Hima, a traditional system of governance in Meghalaya, who introduced eco-tourism in Mawphlang.

“Mass tourism is dangerous and can have a double-edged impact,” Salvador Lyngdoh, a scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India, whose work focuses on conservation in the Himalayan ecosystem, said. “The making of root bridges takes a lot of time and energy; hence, what we need is more quality- and research-based tourism.” The research article cited above found that of the 75 LRBs documented, 14% have seen significant changes because of tourism.

Lyngdoh of WII added that focus should be on developing sustainable tourism so that the root bridges are not affected negatively.

“There is a linkage between biodiversity and these bridges,” he said. “LRBs are an ecosystem of their own. Animals like squirrels use their branches, birds nest in them, clouded leopards and bark deer have been known to use them to move from one part of the forest to the other. Hence they have to be protected.”

One of the initiatives of the Living Bridge Foundation has been to propose a buffer zone around the LRBs. “We have proposed a 50-metre buffer zone around the root bridges to the clan committees, our traditional heads, so that there is no construction activity that may harm the trees in any way,” Khongthaw said.

There is also a “risk” of loss of knowledge about the making of the root bridges among the younger generation, Khongthaw said, which is why they also raise awareness about the root bridges and the bigger idea of selflessness behind them. Maintenance of a root bridge is a community effort, spanning generations.

“In my village in the Pynursla tehsil, there are 22 Living Root Bridges,” Kongthaw said. “My work began with talking to the community about the kind of tourism we want, and then proceeded to training youngsters as guides, taking the help of elders who can teach youngsters how to maintain and build root bridges.”

They have also helped set up community home stays. The foundation, with the support of UNDP, has set up tourism models in 400 households in three villages. “We have also repaired more than 50 root bridges since our inception in 2018,” Khongthaw said.

He has also undertaken the responsibility of being the caretaker of a triple-decker root bridge that is in the process of being built, between Mawkynrot and Phlangtyngor village. “Earlier I was a promoter of the LRBs, but now I have become a protector,” he said.

(This story was originally published on Indiaspend.com)