{"id":101232,"date":"2026-05-01T12:47:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T07:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=101232"},"modified":"2026-05-01T14:30:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T09:00:45","slug":"ru-soam-bridges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/ru-soam-bridges\/","title":{"rendered":"Ru-Soam Bridges"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Ru-Soam Bridges Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">UNESCO has partnered with the Sikkim government to document the indigenous engineering known as Ru-Soam.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Ru-Soam<\/b> <b>Bridges<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a <\/span><b>cane bridge<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> built <\/span><b>by the Lepcha community in Sikkim, especially <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/khangchendzonga-national-park\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the Lepcha language, \u2018Ru\u2019 means cane or rattan, while <\/span><b>\u2018Soam\u2019<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> refers to a bridge.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Materials Used:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It is crafted from locally available <\/span><b>materials such as bamboo, cane, and wood.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Structural Features<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It consists of two <\/span><b>parallel canes called soamgyang.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The soamgyang are tied to trees on the two ends, ensuring that the bridge remains suspended.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A ru-soam contains <\/span><b>swinging cane loops called ahool.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bamboos, or <\/span><b>soamgur<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, are used to make the <\/span><b>deck of the bridge.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The bridges <\/span><b>can be 100 metres long<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and two or three people can cross them at a time<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This engineering practice reflects a sophisticated understanding of <\/span><b>ecological balance and structural resilience.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Ru-Soam cane bridges are not relics of the past; they are living expressions of engineering ingenuity.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newindianexpress.com\/nation\/2026\/Apr\/29\/unesco-sikkim-govt-partner-to-document-ru-soam-engineering-practices\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NIE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ru-Soam Bridges is a cane bridge built by the Lepcha community in Sikkim, especially in the Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve. Read more about Ru-Soam Bridges, Structural Features, Uses, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":101263,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,7258,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-101232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-prelims-pointers","9":"tag-ru-soam-bridges","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101232"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101274,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101232\/revisions\/101274"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}