Indigenous Futurity in the Living Root Bridges of the Khasi-Jaiñtia Hills of India: A Documentary Essay

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.24.2.2025.4139

Keywords:

living root bridges, Indigenous Futurity, Khasi-Jaiñtia, Indigenous Indian community, tropical sustainability, film documentary

Abstract

The Living Root Bridges found in the southern valleys of the Khasi-Jaiñtia Hills of Meghalaya, India, attract tourists from all over the world to admire nature’s extravagance. Apart from the attraction of these natural entities, the underlying values and principles that nature has to offer lays out a comprehensive understanding of an Indigenous futurism in the mountainous landscape of this wet tropical region. This paper is based on the documentary film Ki Thied Ka Lawei (Roots of Sustainability), directed by the author. The documentary depicts the ongoing practice of constructing and reconstructing a bamboo bridge in the village of Shiliang Jashar yearly since 1988. The bamboo bridge is used by locals to commute over the Wah Jashar river, and simultaneously acts as a scaffold for the formation of a living root bridge into the future. Another semi-formed root bridge in a neighbouring village of Mawkyrnot, gives a clear insight into the growth of these root bridge formations. This essay exhibits stills from the documentary and describes and analyses the ensuing bridge-making, rooted in Indigenous knowledge systems of nature-culture relationality passed on by the Khasi ancestors in an act of Indigenous futurity.

Author Biography

Randolph V. Langstieh, St. Edmund’s College, Shillong, Meghalaya, India

Randolph V. Langstieh is a Khasi, native to Shillong in the state of Meghalaya, India. He is presently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Social Work, St. Edmund’s College in Shillong. He has a Master’s degree in Social Work (Human Resource Management), from Madras Christian College, Chennai, India. His PhD thesis submitted to the Department of Cultural & Creative Studies, North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India is titled “The Lore of Ka Blei Ïawpaw: An Analytical Study from Indigenous Perspective”. This analysis alludes to Ka Blei Ïawpaw as the Earth Spirit or the spirit of Mother Earth in the Khasi worldview. He has a keen interest on decolonial and indigenous research. Having worked in the state of Meghalaya for more than a decade, his research is largely in the context, pedagogy, content and knowledge systems of the Khasi community in relation to other indigenous studies of the world. His other published work is on Khasi Ethics (Im-Palei). He has also presented papers at both International and National Conferences. Apart from research in Indigenous studies, he is also a documentary filmmaker, a medium he uses to communicate his research activities to a wider audience.

References

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Published

2025-04-21

How to Cite

Langstieh, R. V. (2025). Indigenous Futurity in the Living Root Bridges of the Khasi-Jaiñtia Hills of India: A Documentary Essay. ETropic: Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics, 24(2), 199–219. https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.24.2.2025.4139

Issue

Vol. 24 No. 2 (2025): Tropical Futurisms: Making Futures

Section

Art Practice

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