Wooden Bridge Hundreds of Years Old in China Survived because the Craftsman's Skills Were Still Maintained

JAKARTA - Hundreds of old wooden bridges in Tongdao, China, still survive not because of massive restoration. According to a China Daily report, the buildings remain alive because residents continue to care for them and craftsmen still pass on their knowledge to the next generation.

In Dong Tongdao Autonomous County, Hunan, there are 117 covered bridges, nine of which are national cultural heritage status. Nationally, the results of the inventory in the three-year preservation program recorded 2,193 covered bridges in China.

For the people of Dong, these bridges are not just a passage over water. It becomes a shelter, a gathering place, and is even believed to bring blessings. Therefore, the bridge is known as the "bridge of wind and rain", and some call it the "bridge of luck".

According to China Daily, quoted Tuesday, March 31, the work of maintaining the bridges is routine and quiet. Yang Huixiang, an officer of the Tongdao cultural reserve unit, has been researching and inspecting the condition for 20 years. Every week he goes around looking at bridges that are partly 100 to 200 years old. For him, the bridges are like old friends.

Conservation in Tongdao is also not supported by large projects. The focus is on daily maintenance and fire prevention. Those who assess the durability are born from strong traditional wood techniques, as well as from the habit of residents who have long collaborated to collect funds, materials, and manpower to repair the bridge when it is damaged.

In the 1970s, the Huilong Bridge was once destroyed by floods. What is interesting is that residents then collected the floating wood, brought it back upstream, and rebuilt the bridge. This event shows that for the Tongdao people, the bridge is not just a building, but a part of their lives.

Another figure in this conservation work is Yang Shengchun, a provincial-level inheritor of Dong traditional wood construction techniques. Three generations of his family became local carpenters. He explained that the essence of this technique lies in the connection of peg wood and holes, aided by a special code called moshiwen so that each piece of wood locks tightly. To master it, one needs at least three years.

Now he teaches more than 20 students. Most are over 50 years old. But his main student is actually his great-nephew who is not yet 30 years old. That's where the important point of preservation is: not only the bridge is maintained, but also the knowledge that makes it still able to stand.

After a fire destroyed the Wan'an Bridge in Fujian in 2022, China has further emphasized a pattern of preservation that combines physical conservation with the protection of intangible heritage. In 2024, the design and practice of the construction of China's wooden arch bridge also rose in status on the UNESCO list.

In Tongdao, modern tools such as digital modeling and 3D scanning are starting to be used. But according to Yang Huixiang, the tools only help. What remains to be determined is the inherited hand skills, because without it, the old bridge could still stand, but the knowledge is lost.