Bangladesh’s beautiful terracotta temples find unlikely saviours

Bangladesh’s lovely terracotta temples discover unlikely saviours

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On the night of Aug 5, Dhaka bookshop proprietor Shahadat Zaman put out a Fb publish saying he can be on the Rajarbag Kali temple for a nightlong vigil. Quickly, some 25 locals reducing throughout spiritual teams provided to affix him. Hours earlier, Sheikh Hasina had resigned as Bangladesh PM and fled the nation, at the same time as focused assaults by miscreants on temples and spiritual monuments of different minorities intensified.
The motley crowd of volunteers divided themselves into two teams — one for the Kali temple and the opposite for the Dharmarajika Bauddha Vihara, the primary Buddhist monastery of Dhaka. They stayed up all evening guarding these two locations of worship.
Whereas there have been focused assaults on Hindus and their locations of worship, some Bangladeshis wish to protect the shared heritage the temples symbolize. “Some folks have used social media to type committees and shield temples, homes and companies of minorities, even calling for assist if there are robberies. College students have volunteered to wash up vandalised temples,” says Zaman.
Shared roots in temple roofs Pratyya Ghosh, a arithmetic pupil at Dhaka College, says govt data put the temples of Bangladesh at greater than 40,000, excluding household shrines. Lots of them got here up through the Bhakti motion.
These temples, a few of them lovely terracotta buildings, have endured pure disasters, political upheavals and spiritual conflicts. “Rising up in Dhaka, I visited temples throughout the metropolis such because the Dhakeshwari Temple, Ramna Kali Temple and Ramkrishna Mission,” he says.
A local of Bogura district, Muslim YouTuber Salahuddin Sumon is understood for his movies on Hindu temples and heritage websites in Bangladesh and some Indian states. “I had all the time been focused on historical past and, whereas roaming the villages of Bangladesh, I used to be moved by its deserted raj baris, temples and zamindar homes in ruins. Folks would pose in entrance of them for selfies however nobody actually knew their again tales. So, I made a decision to doc them,” says Sumon, who intends to maintain recording Hindu temples and homes.
“The truth is, I’ll do a greater job of it as a result of the dictator has left. The notion that Hindus are unsafe with out the Awami League is strictly what a brand new Bangladesh needs to return out of. The nation now belongs to everybody,” he says.
Rumours rife with rising strife Based on some reviews, round a dozen Hindu temples had been attacked final week however there have been additionally a number of false claims. “Loads of it’s hearsay mongering,” claims Aal Maruf Russell, a Bangladeshi archaeologist. Russell has partnered with Kolkata-based Immersive Trails to conduct a ‘backpacker’s tour’ of Rajshahi, one of many oldest cities within the nation. His curated tour itinerary for Indian and Bangladesh travellers contains the temple city of Puthia.
“There have been hardly any heritage walks in Bangladesh until now however historical past buffs from each the nations wish to know extra. In Puthia, you will see that 13-14 temples in each 2 to three sq kms. It has a mix of colonial and Mughal structure. Thus far, no temples there have been harmed within the ongoing turmoil,” he says, hopeful that an October journey will likely be on schedule because the interim govt takes cost. Puthia was additionally one of many oldest zamindar estates in undivided Bengal from the early seventeenth century.
Zamindars had cash, so that they constructed temples. Kolkata-based journey author and photographer Rangan Datta writes that the city is house to the Boro Shiv Mandir (inbuilt 1823 with a posh pinnacle design) and Rath Mandir (devoted to Lord Jagannath), each constructed beneath the patronage of the Puthia royalty. Different notable buildings embody the Dol Mandir, Puthia Rajbari, Boro Gobinda Mandir, Choto Shiv Mandir (a tiny char chala temple with nice terracotta ornamentation on its façade), and the ruins of Char Ani Rajbari.
“The 18th century Kantajew Hindu temple in Dinajpur district is my favorite. It had the best terracotta work in the entire of undivided Bengal,” says Datta.
The temple panels illustrate tales from the Mahabharata and Ramayana. It has braved a number of pure calamities, together with an earthquake in 1897, and has been meticulously restored. Datta additionally speaks of the Dhakeshwari temple that hosts the annual Durga Puja in Dhaka.
It’s the most important Hindu temple in Bangladesh and one of many 51 Shakti Peeths. Constructed within the twelfth century, the temple underwent a number of renovations earlier than being declared the Nationwide Temple in 1996. Koushik Banerjee, founding father of Kolkata-based Supreme Excursions and Travels, has been conducting customised Shakti Peeth excursions in Bangladesh for a decade now as seven of the websites fall within the nation. However he has been compelled to cancel all bookings now. “Issues have modified dramatically. It is going to be tougher for us to pitch Bangladesh as a secure vacation spot for spiritual vacationers now,” he says.



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