Meghalaya School Dropout On A Mission To Maintain Living Root Bridges

Shillong, June 13, 2019:

He is a school dropout. He calls himself a ‘living bridge activist’. And he is on a mission. A mission to maintain living root bridges that have gone into disrepair and building new ones.

Meet Morningstar Khongthaw, the 23-year-old school dropout and founder of the Living Bridge Foundation (LBF).

Morningstar is a native of Rangthylliang village in the Pynursla tehsil of the East Khasi Hills district.

We all know Meghalaya is home to unique living root bridges. These bridges are created by weaving and manipulating the roots of the rubber tree.

Morningstar is on a mission to maintain these living root bridges and make people understand the value of this ancient skill.

Khongthaw is the chairman of The Living Root Foundation with the objective to preserve, protect, and multiply the living architecture of Meghalaya.

According to Morningstar, these bridges were made for a practical need to cross streams and rivers.

Morningstar dropped out of school in 2016 and began gathering youths to maintain and repair bridges that had been damaged. Two years later in 2018, the Living Bridge Foundation came into existence.

Though Morningstar is on his mission to maintain these bridges, yet there seems to be no concerted governmental efforts to preserve the bridges and the skills involved in making them.

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