Any Travels

With an area of about 144,000 sq km, Bangladesh is situated between latitudes 20~34' and 26~38' north and latitudes 88~01' and 92~41' east. The country is bordered by India on the east, west and north and by the Bay of Bengal on the south. There is also a small strip of frontier with Burma on the southeastern edge. The land is a deltaic plain with a network of numerous rivers and canals.

Bangladesh consists mostly of a low-lying river delta located on the Indian subcontinent with a largely marshy jungle coastline on the Bay of Bengal known as the Sundarbans, home to the (Royal) Bengal Tiger. The densely populated delta is formed by the confluence of the Ganges (local name Padma), Brahmaputra (Jamuna), and Meghna rivers and their tributaries as they flow down from the Himalaya. Bangladesh's alluvial soil is highly fertile but vulnerable to both flood and drought. Hills rise above the plain only in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (highest point: the Keokradong at 1 230 m) in the far southeast and the Sylhet division in the northeast.

Straddling the Tropic of Cancer, the Bangladeshi climate is tropical with a mild winter from October to March, a hot, humid summer from March to June, and a humid, warm rainy monsoon from June to October. Natural calamities, such as floods, tropical cyclones, tornadoes, and tidal bores affect the country almost every year, combined with the effects of deforestation, soil degradation and erosion. Dhaka is the country's capital and largest city. Other major cities include Chittagong, Rajshahi, and Khulna. Cox's Bazar, South of the city of Chittagong, has a sea beach that streches uninterrupted over 120kms; it is frequently quoted as the World's longest natural sea beach (although this claim is difficult to prove or disprove).

Apart from very small countries such as Singapore and Bahrain, Bangladesh is the most densely populated country in the world. The nation, at 982 persons per km?, has often been compared to Indonesia's Java.

Bangladesh is ethnically homogenous, with Bengalis comprising 98% of the population. The vast majority speak Bangla, or Bengali. The remaining two percent are mainly Urdu-speaking, non-Bengali Muslims from regions of India such as Bihar. A substantial number of non-Bengali tribal groups inhabit the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the southeast and the Northern regions Bangladesh, including parts of the districts of Mymensingh, Sylhet, Rangpur. Almost all non-Bengali Bangladeshis speak Bangla as a second language.

Most Bangladeshis (about 83%) are Muslims, but Hindus constitute a sizable (16%) minority. There are also a small number of Buddhists, Christians, and Animists. Bengali, an Indo-Aryan language, is written in a script similar to Devanagari. It is the official language, though English is accepted in official tasks and in (higher) education.

In 1992, the government began promoting birth control to slow population growth, but with limited success. Many are landless or forced to inhabit hazardous floodplains, with the consequence of rampant water-borne disease. In an effort to stem the spread of pathogens like cholera and dysentery, international organizations began to promote well-drilling throughout the nation. Several years after widespread implementation of the programme, over a quarter of the population exhibited symptoms of arsenic poisoning. High levels of naturally occurring arsenic in the water table of certain regions has not been accounted for. The effects of arsenic-tainted water still remain a problem.

Places of Interest:

Dhaka
Dhaka (previously Dacca), population 9,000,022 (2001), is the capital of Bangladesh. The city is situated on Buriganga, a channel of the Dhaleswari River, in the heart of the world's largest jute-growing region. It is the industrial, commercial, and administrative center of Bangladesh, with trade in jute, rice, oilseeds, sugar, and tea. Manufactures include textiles and jute products. Dhaka is famous for its handicrafts.

The most important sights are the Lalbagh Fort, the National Assembly Building, the Baitul Mukkaram Mosque and the national gardens.

Chittagong
Chittagong is the second-largest city of Bangladesh with a population of about 2 million (and rising). The city is located on Karnaphuli River on the Bay of Bengal. Among the city’s sights are several tombs and religious shrines including the Tomb of Sultan Bayazid Bostami (note the hundreds of tortoises in the tank representing evil souls). The Shah Jame Mosque built on a hillside offers excellent views. The 14th-century Qadam (Kadam) Mubarak Mosque contains what’s said to be a footprint of the Prophet.

Other attractions include the ethnological museum in Agrabad the World War II Military Cemetery (graves of British Australian and other soldiers) the 300-year-old Portuguese Arsenal (interesting architecture) and the harbor area (called the “Sadarghat ” it’s the city’s oldest area).

Cox's bazar
Near the border with Myanmar this town is noted for one of the world’s longest and least-crowded beaches—an incredible 121 km in length! The setting for this beach with its silvery gold sand is tropical-forested hills. The best time to go there is at sunrise and sunset when the sand changes colors. Enjoy water-related activities, shop for handmade clothes, relax and enjoy the scenery. Cox's bazar is very quickly becoming a well visited tourist spot for Bangladesh and during the months of September and October the beach can get very crowded. Usually hotel walk-ins are almost hard to find, specially the ones which are closest to the beach.

Further down south from the town are other parts of the beaches which are not well known to tourists. Here you can go early in the morning and see the fishermen coming back with her morning catch as the sun rises by the horizon.

Mainimati Ruins
Famous as an important centre of Buddhist culture from the 7th to 12th centuries, the buildings excavated here were made wholly of baked bricks. There are more than 50 scattered Buddhist sites, but the three most important are Salban Vihara, Kotila Mura and Charpatra Mura.

Salban Vihara was a well-planned, 170 sq m (182 sq ft) monastery facing a temple in the centre of the courtyard. Nearby is a museum housing the finds excavated here, which include terracotta plaques, bronze statues, a bronze casket, coins, jewellery and votive stupas embossed with Buddhist inscriptions.

Kotila Mura comprises three large stupas representing Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, the 'Three Jewels of Buddhism'. The most important discovery at Charpatra Mura were four royal copper-plate decrees, three belonging to Chandra rulers, the other to Sri Viradhara Deva, a later Hindu king.

Note that some of the major ruins are within a military cantonment and cannot be visited without permission from military officers.

Somapuri Vihara
The 8th-century Somapuri Vihara at Paharpur was formerly the biggest Buddhist monastery south of the Himalaya. It's by far the most impressive archaeological site in Bangladesh, and covers some 11 hectares (27 acres).

Although in an advanced state of decay, the overall plan of the temple complex is easy to figure out and includes a large quadrangle with the monks' cells forming the walls and enclosing a courtyard. From the centre of the courtyard rises the 20m (66ft) high remains of a stupa which dominates the surrounding countryside.

The monastery's recessed walls are embellished with well-preserved terracotta bas-reliefs, and a small museum houses a representative display of the domestic and religious objects found during excavations.

Culture

The Bengal region has a multifaceted folk heritage, enriched by its ancient animist, Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim roots. Weaving, pottery and terracotta sculpture are some of the earliest forms of artistic expression. The best known literature of Bangladesh is the work of the great Bengali poets Rabindranath Tagore and Nazrul Islam, though these giants have been overshadowed recently by the furore over the writings of Taslima Nasrin, who has received death threats from Muslim fundamentalists for her outspoken critiques of Islam's oppression of women. Folk theatre is common at the village level and usually takes place during harvest time or at melas (village fairs). There are many folk dances, but classical dance is largely borrowed from Indian models and is frowned upon by the more severe religious leaders.

Bangladesh's Muslims and Hindus live in relative harmony. The Muslim majority has religious leaders, pirs, whose status straddles the gap between that of a bishop and that of a sage. Hinduism in Bangladesh lacks the pomp and awe of the Indian version, but consequently Hindu ceremonies are rarely conducted in the depths of temples to which access is restricted. People here are very willing for you to watch and even participate. Buddhists today form only a tiny minority of the population. It's worth noting that the Bangladeshi pride in ancestry is balanced by the Islamic slant of the country's intellectual life which tends to deny the achievements of the preceding Hindu and Buddhist cultures.

A typical Bangladeshi meal consists of beef (or sometimes mutton, chicken, fish or egg) and vegetables cooked in a hot spicy sauce with mustard-oil, yellow watery lentils (dal) and plain rice. Fish is part of the staple diet; however, over-fishing has led to a scarcity of river fish and more sea fish are appearing on menus. Alcoholic drinks are not widely available; head for five-star hotels and ritzier restaurants when you want a tipple.

BISHWANTH