Today things have changed but bamboo is still used in the same way in many rural cultures and hundreds of new uses have been found for bamboo. No other plant has as many uses and impacted so many cultures in so many ways. This page will grow over time as we explore the ways bamboo has been used in past and is used today.

Landscaping, gardening, agriculture

Shelter - Everything from simple sheds to complex buildings have been built with bamboo. Bamboo may be used for the entire structure, for walls alone, for roofs, for floors, for most any part of the house structure.

Bridges - Bamboo has been used to bridge everything from small streams to big rivers. These bridges may be as simple as a few pieces of bamboo placed across a stream up to complex truss bridges, to suspension bridges using bamboo rope.

Fences - There must be hundreds of kinds of fences built from bamboo. The Chinese and Japanese have taken this to a high level of art. There are multiple books about bamboo fences with with information on techniques and tools devoted to the craft. Fences range from simple lattice, to woven panels, to living walls. Fences made from bamboo may be used for privacy, for decoration, to contain livestock, as guard rails, to block unpleasant views, for every use imaginable. Building a bamboo fence can be quite simple or extremely elaborate. How to build a simple bamboo fence.

Music - Bamboo has been used to make music since humans first began to make music. Probably as percussion instruments first, but over time almost every type of musical instrument has been made with bamboo. Flutes, panpipes, saxophones, digeridoos, xylophones, marimbas, whistles, wind chimes, pipe organs, gongs, rain sticks, and the list goes on!

Construction - Domes, tea houses, roof tiles, gutters, ladder, concrete reinforcement, scaffolding, pergolas, temples, gazebos, shade pavilions, garden trellises, scaffolding, towers, churches, barns, pig pens, fish traps, piers, retaining walls, chicken pens, play structures, ladders, shelves, most anything you can think of. Bamboo flooring has become one of the most popular "hardwood" flooring products on the market today. "Plyboo" takes the place of plywood.

Furniture - Beds, chairs, tables, stools, book shelves, desk, bread racks, folding chairs, chest of drawers, wine racks, clothes racks, cabinets, lamps, chests, coffee tables, benches, work benches, any piece of furniture you can think of has been made of bamboo.

Boats - As a boat lover this is one of my favorites. Bamboo rafts are probably some of the earliest boats ever. With hollow, watertight compartments bamboo is a natural choice. But over time the ways bamboo has been used for boats has expanded. Chinese junks used bamboo for mast, booms, oars, rails, woven into sails, push poles, ropes, outriggers, etc. Several years ago Tim Severin built an entire boat of bamboo to try to prove that the Chinese may have crossed the Pacific hundreds of years ago. Over a hundred years ago Fridtjof Nansen was marooned in the artic and used bamboo poles and sail cloth to build a kayak to save himself. The Japanese used split bamboo to make a basket like boat for fishing. The Vietnamese make a type of boat from plaited bamboo. In ancient Polynesia the people built big catamarans using bamboo for mast, shelter, rails, floors, and as containers for fresh water. In modern times bamboo has been laminated and used for surfboards and modern boat construction.

Bamboo and food - Of course most bamboo shoots can be eaten and in times of massive flowering of bamboo the seeds are used as grain. But besides being a food item bamboo has been used (and continues to be used) in the kitchen. Just a few uses include, cups, bowls, place mats, chop sticks, egg beaters, tea whisks, forks, knives, spoons, canisters, rice cookers, salad bowls, napkin rings, and just about any other kitchen utensil you can think of! Rice is steamed in the sections of cane. Salad bowls are made from thin, woven strips of bamboo. Woven screens of split bamboo or used in rice steamers.