Life and Landscapes

Rowing riverboat-home. Bangladesh, 1987 River transport commerce. Bangladesh, 1987 Unloading goods on river. Bangladesh, 1987 Farm haystack. Bangladesh, 1987 Winter shoals on river. Bangladesh, 2001 The strategic importance of railroads. Bangladesh, 2001

Vegetable bazaar (market). Bangladesh, 1998 Grameen Bank customer. Bangladesh, 1998 Activists of Naripakkha demonstrate in. Bangladesh, 2000 Working class women demonstrate against. Bangladesh, 2000 Bulldozing illegal (unlicensed) rickshas. Dhaka, 2000 Burning a ricksha in Dhaka. Bangladesh, 2000

Streets

Ricksha Traffic Jam, Photo by John Miles. Dhaka, 1999 Rickshas often take over. Dhaka, 2001 Lost in the movies--driver awaits fare, Photo by Kevin Bubriski. Dhaka, 1992 Moving plastic containers and other stuff. Dhaka, 1998

Paan (betel chew) stand. Dhaka, 1998 Brand new ricksha made by Shujon Mistri. Dhaka, 1998

Pope rides a
ricksha in Dhaka          Contemporary Rural Possibilities       Baby taxi air pollution in Dhaka

               

Severe traffic jam               Smoke free street, Dhaka                  One more clear street

Religions
credit: http://www.virtualbangladesh.com/bd_religion.html See this website for more on Bangladesh.

Islam in Bangladesh
About 80 percent of Bangladeshis are Muslims, making Bangladesh one of the largest Muslim countries in the world. The Muslim community in Bangladesh tends to be accomodating to other faiths and beliefs and Bangladesh is known for its lack of communal strife, although such restraint has broken down since the Babri Mosque riots in India in 1992. At that time, Hindus in Bangladesh were attacked, beaten, their shops and temples torn up, in response to the Indian mobs that destroyed the Babri Mosque, not in use and only a ruin. But it was a ruin which Indian Hindu nationalists claimed to be the birthplace of their deity, Lord Rama. The old communal peace of Bangladesh is now on tendentious ground. Hinduism is professed by about 12 percent of the population while there are significant numbers of Buddhists in Bangladesh. Bangladesh also has a very small Christian community. Here Muslim prayers are in progress outside an overflowing mosque.

Bangladesh Muslims praying outside overflowing mosque, probably on a festival day.

Tara Mosque. Old Dhaka, 1980s	Decorative designs on mosque in Old Dhaka

Hindu temple guardian lions, tea plantation. Bangladesh, 1987 Buddhist monks in Bangladesh. Frieze from temple in Dinajpur, Bangladesh 18th c, dedicated to the deity Krishna.

Animal combat terracotta frieze, Bangladesh

Durga Puja, Bengal festival extraordinaire:

The annual mother goddess pujas for deities Durga, Lakshmi and Kali are celebrated by Hindus in Bangladesh as in west Bengal, India, beginning in mid-October this year (2002). Following is a Durga image from Bangladesh, and some Durga images and a pandal (temporary shrine) from this year's puja in Kolkata, plus a link for viewing the elaborate pandals in Kolkata. This year silver seems to be the favored gilt medium for the protimas (deity images), but there are also some in gold. Many of the pandals are made of unusual substances, like seashells, sugar cane, gramophone records, even biscuits (commercially made cookies).Some pandals imitate village architecture with thatch roofs; some imitate famous temples in India like Jagannath at Puri; most pandal styles seem to emulate Indian and Kolkatan architecture of the 19th century. Views of a full shrine with all the deities present should include the deities Lakshmi Devi to left of Durga, and Ganesh to her left; Saraswati Devi to right of Durga, and Kartikeyya to her right. Viewers can see their mounts in some of the photos in the netguruindia link -- an owl for Lakshmi, a goose for Saraswati, the mounts of Ganesh (a rat) and of Kartikeyya (peacock) seem invisible in these photos. The lore of this festival views the other deities as Durga's children.

Goddess Durga protima at Dhakeswari Mandir, Dhaka. Independent photo. Communal harmony at Durga Puja-2004 Durgapuja in Kolkata, October 2002

 Expat Portrait Commissioning

Helpers and Friends

Prof. Jahanara Haq and author. Dhaka, 1987 Sarah Boido and friend, Krishna Shah Rajshahi, 1976 Author, and Prof. Shahanara Husain, History Dept., Rajshahi University. Bangladesh, 1986

Baghdad Wall Art--NEW!!!

In a dull Baghdad world of concrete and razor-wire, chicanes and blast barriers, a little color has just re-appeared. Every official building or media base these days has a frontage of four-metre(13ft) high concrete walls to protect against bombs and mortars, but Iraqis have begun to see the grey expanse as a public canvas, reports the BBC. There is of course graffiti, but mostly great swirling apolitical exuberance - everything from retro-Chagall to prog-rock album-cover teenage fantasies. For more on this art, visit Article on Readings Page

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