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The Atlas Obscura Podcast

The Root Bridges of Cherrapunji Re-listen

The Atlas Obscura Podcast

SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura

Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.61.6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2022

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In the depths of Northeastern India, centuries-old bridges are not built, they are grown. Read more in the Atlas: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/root-bridges-cherrapungee

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

In the northeast of India, you'll find an unusual quirk of geology.

0:24.2

A mountainous plateau pushed up by the same continental crash of tectonic plates that created the Himalayas,

0:31.6

and next to it, the vast flat plain of Bangladesh.

0:37.6

As air flows over Bangladesh's hot steaming plains, it's like they're passing through a sauna,

0:43.0

the clouds soak up the steaming moisture until they hit the steep plateau where they're squeezed

0:49.8

through these narrow gaps in the mountains.

0:52.7

It's like a wet towel being twisted until every single drop has fallen.

0:59.1

It's the perfect storm for a storm.

1:03.8

This region of India is known as the Megalaya Plateau.

1:07.1

Megalaya means the abode of the clouds, and it's one of the wettest regions on the planet.

1:12.8

Some of the villages get as much as 38 feet of rainfall a year,

1:18.2

38 feet of rainfall.

1:21.7

The rain comes down in these raging torrents that over time have carved their way into the limestone,

1:28.1

creating these deep canyons overflowing with raging rivers.

1:34.2

For the Kasi tribes, living in one of the wettest places in the world,

1:38.6

crossing these torrents was an act of life and death.

1:42.4

And normal bamboo bridges, they just got washed away, and wooden bridges rot in the humidity.

1:50.1

But hundreds of years ago, the Kasi tribes solved this problem with one of the most beautiful,

1:55.7

elegant solutions that you can imagine.

1:58.5

Because up there, in Megalaya, among the clouds, the bridges aren't built.

2:05.5

They're grown.

2:07.6

I'm Dylan Therese, and this is Al-Subskira, a celebration of the world's strange, incredible, and wondrous places.

...

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