Meghalaya’s Living Root Bridges Enter Race For UNESCO World Heritage Tag

India has formally submitted Meghalaya’s living root bridges for consideration as a UNESCO World Heritage site for the 2026–27 cycle, marking a major step towards global recognition of the state’s Indigenous cultural landscape.

Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma announced on Thursday that the nomination dossier was handed over in Paris by India’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to UNESCO, Vishal V. Sharma, to World Heritage Centre Director Lazare Assomo Eloundou.

“We are hopeful that the living root bridges will be inscribed this year, ensuring that the Indigenous communities — the true guardians of this living heritage — receive the global recognition they so richly deserve,” Sangma said in a post on X.

The nomination highlights Jingkieng Jri or Lyu Chrai, the living root bridges, located across the southern slopes of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills in Meghalaya. The site represents a rare living cultural landscape shaped over centuries by the Indigenous Khasi and Jaintia communities through their interaction with nature.

According to the statement issued by the Permanent Delegation of India to UNESCO, the landscape reflects a deep and harmonious relationship between people, nature and spirituality, embedded in traditional systems of land use, governance and ecological stewardship.

While submitting the dossier, Sharma thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Culture Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Chief Minister Sangma for their support to the nomination.

He also acknowledged the role played by Meghalaya Principal Secretary Frederick Kharkongor, officers of the Archaeological Survey of India, the Ministry of External Affairs, subject experts, and local communities in safeguarding the site and preparing the nomination.

The cultural landscape is rooted in an Indigenous worldview guided by principles of respect, reciprocity and responsibility towards Mei Ramew (Mother Earth), the statement said.

The submission of the dossier, it added, underscores India’s commitment to recognising and preserving living cultural traditions and Indigenous knowledge systems, while contributing to global heritage conservation efforts through UNESCO.

If inscribed, Jingkieng Jri would become one of the few cultural landscapes from India recognised by UNESCO, drawing global attention to Meghalaya’s Indigenous practices of sustainable coexistence between people, nature and belief systems