Central Bangladesh – Full of Contrasts
I wasn’t sure what to expect on my tour to visit ancient Hindu and Buddhist sites through Central Bangladesh. As I made my way around, I was struck by the contrasting images confronting me. The cities and towns are overpopulated, dirty, and filled with a combination of ancient ways and new construction. Traditional habits are being forced to adapt to new roads, new technologies, and new global ways of thinking. My sense was that this transition is not easy for many of the people it’s effecting. On the other hand, it also seemed that everyone was in favor of the expanded roads and proposed new transportation system as they are currently clogged with traffic. In many of the towns, the traffic isn’t necessarily due to cars, but rather the motorized rickshaws, which are everywhere. There is even the equivalent of Uber rickshaw drivers as well as for motorcyclists. Those on the motorcycles are really taking their lives in their hands, however, as helmets are not required, and it is only by the grace of Allah that more accidents don’t occur. As I mentioned in the Dhaka blog, there are basically no rules of the road. Red lights are routinely ignored, going the opposite way on a one-way street doesn’t raise an eyebrow, stopping on the highway to back up after missing the exit is no big thing, and signs of all kinds, including for honking, are only for decoration. As in India and Nepal, I was glad I wasn’t driving and responsible for potential damage to the car. One difference from those other two countries, however, is that the paved roads are for the most part in much better condition here than there. This is not the case, however, with litter, which is everywhere. There are huge piles of plastic and assorted other litter by the sides of the roads, and Azim explained that they are using the trash as a foundation for the new roads. I am unfamiliar with this concept, but perhaps the plastic breaks down and bends enough to withstand climatic differences. A physicist and a chemist could probably explain the science behind this, but unfortunately, I can’t, and the mountains of rubbish are a health hazard as well as an eyesore. In the rural areas, the streets/paths often have cow dung drying on jute mats. The dung is used for fuel to heat the houses. I saw the same thing in India and do believe there may be something we in the West can learn from this procedure. IF we could harness all the cow manure – and Austria has more than enough cows – and convert that to energy, we wouldn’t need to rely so heavily on fossil fuels or wood from the forests. I believe a city in Norway or Sweden was powering their bus system with waste products, and this is a commodity that will never run out. We just need a few really bright people to figure out how to do it cleanly and efficiently. Traditional methods can have much to teach us, and I hope that in the push to modernize, some of them remain. One that was lost in Bangladesh was Chillum, a marijuana plant that grew well in this region, but was banned in the 1980s as the country needed money from the U.S., and the Americans insisted that production and distribution be stopped. Azim mentioned that with the end of marijuana, which was used for medicinal purposes as well as to get high, there was a tremendous increase in hard drugs. Forty years later, we have a global opioid crisis, and marijuana is being legalized in a number of states and countries.
Bangladesh, along with Pakistan, was the site of the death of millions during Partition in 1947 and the years immediately thereafter. East Pakistan was founded on the basis of religion and religion is definitely a defining factor in the country, due to its relatively recent history as well as how it is deeply engrained in the culture. The muezzins call to prayer more than five times a day, as they also include one at midnight and about 3am. Luckily, their call is mostly melodious and not like the tinny sound that comes through the bad loudspeakers throughout Turkey. I saw more women in complete burqas here than anywhere outside of Iran, including in Pakistan. It seems odd to me why men want selfies with their fully covered wives and girlfriends or just shots of their female counterparts by a temple or other archeological site. Without being able to see the faces, the person under all that cloth could be anyone. In the end, they are only taking a photo of a blob of cloth. And people here do love to take selfies – especially with a foreigner. In many places, I couldn’t walk ten steps without someone asking for a photo, and I was more than happy to oblige them even if I normally prefer not to have my photo taken. There aren’t many Westerners here, in fact, I only met one Polish couple in the Mahasthangarh Museum, and then a group of Kennedy family members appeared in the same museum. They had been invited to the country by the Prime Minister. When JFK was a senator, he spoke in favor of Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan even though most of the administration at the time sided with Pakistan. Bangladesh remains thankful to the Kennedy family. It wasn’t until my last Central Bangladesh tour day that I came across a group of Germans at the Hindu brass sculpture workshop, who seemed to be with the embassy and not regular tourists.
Locals come to the parks by the archeological sites and seem to be actively engaged in learning about the previous religions in the region, Buddhism and Hinduism. Other than at some of the smaller sites, there were lots of locals out exploring ancient Hindu temples and Buddhist viharas. I was fortunate to be able to visit some of the major non-Muslim archeological sites in the country. When we left Dhaka, we headed straight to Puthia, where a large Shiva Temple was built in 1823 by the widow of the local ruler. It is made in the Pancha Ratna (five spires) mode and is all white with Mughal-era decorated entryways. In the large pond, that is by all temple and mosque complexes, she had a separate walled in space for her own private bathing facility built as well as her own private temple, which has ornate terracotta figures on the exterior walls that are reminiscent of the nearby 1778 constructed Dol-Mandir. The Queen converted to Vaishnavism, and there is a very nice Krishna Temple in the complex. The temples are beautifully decorated, some with replicas of the original terracotta figures that are in the museum in Rajshahi.
The Varendra Research Museum in Rajshahi is one of the best in the country and is considered the oldest as it was established in 1910. The museum has some amazing 9-12th C black basalt sculptures including one that I begged to take a photo of even though photography wasn’t allowed. In the Myanmar blog I mentioned how I found it odd that the Buddha sculptures from the 11th -14th and sometimes into the 15th C had flat digits. The fingers and toes on these sculptures are all the same length and not naturally rounded. In Myanmar I was told they got the convention from Sri Lanka, but when I was in Sri Lanka, I never saw a similar construction. Now in Bangladesh at the Varendra Museum, there is the only example of a sculpture with the flat digits that I have found outside of Myanmar. It is also from the 11th C and was excavated near Naogaon.
The next day we headed to Gaur and the 15-16th C mosques that replaced the earlier Buddhist and Hindu sites. I had thought there would be some remains of the earlier cultures, but according to the archeologists there weren’t. I did find one, however! A person-sized stupa that was covered in vegetation in a mango forest behind the main site. I found it on a walk through the grove on the way to an old cemetery. The cemetery was also in ruins and no one was sure who initiated it, but that was probably Muslim as there were no figures on any of the stonework remains. This excursion into the hinterlands was also my successful attempt to bring Azim somewhere that he hadn’t been. So far I’ve been able to bring my guides to at least one place in their country that they haven’t been before. Back towards the regular Gaur archeological site is the mosque and Tahkhana (cold room) that appear to have been rather recently renovated and are painted pink. They are striking in their Mughal architecture, but unfortunately, my iphone was malfunctioning and the camera wouldn’t take any photos. Not too far away is the Choto Sona Mosque which was built sometime between 1493 and 1519 in black stone, which must have been exceedingly expensive to bring to the region as it doesn’t have any stone. According to https://www.bangladesh.com/attractions/religious-sites/chhota-sona-masjid/, it was divided into fifteen units, each with a specific role. Today, the site is still used, but the earlier architectural purposes for the individual spaces has been lost. Two of the most striking features, to me at least, in these Bangladeshi medieval mosques, are the multiple domes and the lack of a minaret.
This was also the case with the mosque we found in the middle of a different mango grove, where a mid-day service had just ended. This one was in a distinctly rural area and, although the mosque was clearly of the same medieval time-period, it wasn’t under the auspices of the Archeological Department. It was obviously simply the local mosque for the villagers. The designs on the exterior walls were as extensive and well-done as the others we had just visited.
On the way to our next stop, we passed by a local weekly vegetable and rice market. The vendors sat on tarps on the sandy ground surrounded by their wares. There were only men present, both as vendors and as buyers, which I found a bit odd. I was told the women were working….
The next morning our first site was another black stone multi-domed mosque, the Kusumba Mosque. There was a festival going on and women in brightly colored clothing and burqas (yes, I’m making a distinction!) were participating. Normally, I’m used to women being allowed in mosques, and there are separate galleries set up for them. Azim mentioned that this was the only mosque in the country where women were allowed. Even so, I saw them lined up behind a curtain to get a peak inside. I didn’t see them go into the actual structure.
It was now time to head to Parharpur, originally known as Somapura Mahavihara, which was one of the largest Buddhist monasteries south of the Himalayas. The complex is huge. The current name comes from parhar meaning “hill” or “mound” and pur meaning “town,” and the local people called it that because prior to archeological excavation it looked like an unnatural hill in the middle of the wetlands. Seals found in the area testify that the large stupa was built by Dharmapala ca. 770-810 CE. It was repeatedly destroyed by invaders and then abandoned when the Hindu rulers took over the region in the 13th C. The complex still lets one feel the presence of those who meditated and worshipped here. It is in a serene setting and remains so today, even with the addition of the interesting, but small, museum, and the kiddie park with vendors at the southern end. The terracotta tiles from here are in the museum on site as well as in Rajshahi and the National Museum.
The last place that I had planned on visiting was Mahasthangar near Bogra, which is the oldest uncovered city in Bangladesh. Coins date the habitation to around the 3rd C BCE. It was an important trading city during the Mauryan period. It is unclear when the site was abandoned, but it was definitely in use during the 13th C as it is mentioned in a couple of different texts. The citadel was the fortified center of the city and its walls run 4km in a rectangular shape. Outside the walls, near what used to be the mighty Karatoya river, which was similar in size to the Ganges today, and is now a small stream, were a couple of viharas (monastery complexes). Only a very small part of this site has been excavated, but what has been uncovered are not only the ruins of walls and a “magical” well, but also ancient coins, seals, ceramics, stone sculptures from the 5th-12th C, and a number of terracotta wall plaques. These finds are in the two-room museum on site as well as in the National Museum.
Bogra, where Mahashangarh now is, was founded by Emperor Ashoka when he conquered Bengal and made it Buddhist. Buddhism flourished with minor interruptions until the Hindu kings took over, and finally the Muslim kings made their presence known in the 13th C. Some of the earlier stupas and temples were ruined, and others left for nature to take over. Such was the case with the Kusumba Stupa, a short drive from the citadel, which is now a perfect spot for locals to climb and watch the sunset from the top.
The next morning, we headed back to Dhaka, but not before stopping at another rather hidden Hindu temple in a small rural Hindu enclave, the Navaratna Temple. The guard allowed us to climb up to the top of the temple for great views of the surrounding area. Near Dhaka we made a slight diversion to Dhamrai Village to visit the workshop of Hindu brass and bronze sculptor. His family has been using the lost wax method to make icons and images for tourists and locals for over 200 years. After the sculptures have been cast and freed from the clay, he burns them to look like antiques. It was fascinating to see the people working on the various facets of the lost wax method, and it seems a shame that the finely sculpted wax figures around which clay is placed and then heated so that the wax leaves and the melted brass or bronze can be poured into the space left by the wax, are returned to a glob of undefined mix of paraffin and beeswax. On the other hand, there may be a spiritual lesson here….
On a more mundane note, there were a few more contrasting impressions that struck me during the tour. The garment factories in Bangladesh have been the sites of some rather horrific working conditions. In the past few years, however, modern buildings run by international firms have taken over and, at least according to Azim, the working conditions have markedly improved. It seems that when global companies demand changes, they are made, but without the outside pressure there would not be any incentive to make the changes. As we drove by the many garment factories on the outskirts of Dhaka, where they have been relocated, hundreds of young women with pieces of paper in their hands were waiting to go to work. Azim explained that this was probably their salary paper as the first of the month is payday. The minimum wage is about US $100 per month. In comparison, an average waiter in a local restaurant can figure on about $150 per month with tips, and a schoolteacher about $600. No one can live on $100 per month, and the garment workers need to pool their money together in families with 3 or 4 members of the same family working in the factory, to get by. Even with the improved conditions, this industry, which accounts for about 20% of the GNP, is still misusing its employees. They, however, don’t have any other choice at the moment, as most of the workers do not have a secondary education and have no other employment opportunities other than working in the fields. The dye workers, presumably in the same situation, are even further away from the city, but near the garment factories. Today they use both natural as well as synthetic dyes.
As it seemed like it was mostly women working in the factories, I asked about women’s representation in government. I learned that not only is the Prime Minister, who has been in power for 14 years, a woman, but also the Speaker and the head of the Opposition as well as a couple of other key cabinet positions. There are also a minimum number of women delegates in their Congress. I then asked about women in industry, and Azim explained that there are a few very influential women in business, but only a few. There seems to be a tremendous disconnect between having women in leading roles in the government – and many of these women have their positions due to family ties-, but not necessarily in industry, and what I witnessed as a woman watching other women as we crossed the country. What may seem like some kind of equality at one level, certainly has not changed the traditional gender roles that have persisted for generations in this part of the world.
This brought me back to questioning the role of government in deciding on and implementing change. Azim mentioned that the current government has been trying to modernize, hence all the major construction projects, a governmental health care system that at least pays for a hospital bed, if not for the doctor’s costs or the medication, and new laws that help improve even the garment factory workers’ salaries, as prior to the new laws there was no minimum wage. Unfortunately, the projects are fraught with corruption at all levels, and this is one of the main reasons many people do not like the current government. Additionally, they seem to have the motto “More development, less democracy” and many are also against any infringements on their democratic rights. Just before we got back to the hotel, we were caught in a political demonstration that totally blocked traffic. It was a peaceful, i.e., non-violent but very loud, demonstration with what appeared to be many hundreds of people. In a different part of town, a similar demonstration for the other party was taking place. Bangladesh will have its next election in December 2023. The current Prime Minister, who is in her late 70s, is expected to run for the now fifth time. She was Prime Minister once before this current 14-year stint. Bangladesh does not have term limits.
Bangladesh appeared to me to be a land full of contrasts. Traditional ways clash with modern laws and development. Improving the economic conditions of the people will be key to easing the government’s intended transitions. Whether they can do so, however, remains a key question.
As elsewhere, kingdoms and cities in Bangladesh have come and gone and walking around the archeological sites is a good reminder of how fragile our civilizations are.
