Tholing Bridge
The Tholing Bridge (also Tholing Chagsam , Toling Bridge , Thoding Bridge ) is a bridge over the Satluj at Tholing Monastery in Zanda County in western Tibet . The bridge , built according to tradition in the 15th century by the Tibetan Buddhist philosopher, teacher, doctor, architect, blacksmith and bridge builder Thangtong Gyelpo , stands right next to a modern road bridge and about 140 m above a dam wall with a hydroelectric power station and is still largely preserved. but no longer usable.
The bridge lies on an old caravan route from India to Gartok . Before the bridge was built, the raging Satluj could only be crossed with rope bridges , which were hardly usable for pack animals. A solid bridge that animals could easily cross was therefore a great relief. Thangtong Gyelpo connected the two steep rocky banks of the Satluj, which is about 25 m wide and formerly flowing in a 12 m deep gorge, with a possibly unique combination of a cantilever bridge and an iron chain bridge . High stone gate towers were erected on the rocks, which provided the necessary weight to hold the six cantilever arms that were fastened one above the other and protruded into the gorge . The opening that remained between the cantilever arms was closed with applied beams. Since the construction could hardly support itself with this span, chains were stretched between the stone towers, which support the cantilever arms with their vertical hangers. The chains consist of 26 to 38 cm long and 7 to 8 cm wide chain links that were forged from rectangular bars with a cross section of approximately 1.8 cm × 2.5 cm. Even after more than half a millennium, the chain links show only minor signs of wear and virtually no corrosion.
The bridge was used by the pundit Nain Singh on his second voyage in 1867 and by Sven Hedin and his caravan on his third expedition (1905-1908) in 1907 .
Web links
- Manfred Gerner: Chakzampa Thangtong Gyalpo - Architect, Philosopher and Iron Chain Bridge Builder translated from German by Gregor Verhufen. The Center for Bhutan Studies, Thimphu, Bhutan, 2007. ISBN 99936-14-39-4 . Pp. 78–79, with photo
See also
Coordinates: 31 ° 29 ′ 56.6 ″ N , 79 ° 49 ′ 22 ″ E