CERCLE DIPLOMATIQUE - issue 4/2017

LE MONDE BANGLADESH
FACTS &
FIGURES
Pahela Baishakh - traditional
New year's day celebration with
cultural activities.
The Rohingya
crisis
Muslim minority. Since the
outbreak of violence in the
province of Rakhine in
Myanmar on August 24th,
2017, more than 600,000
people of Myanmar's
Muslim minority, the
Rohingyas, have fled this
“ethnic cleansing“ (UN
Human Right Commissioner
Zeid Raad al-Hussein)
across the border to
Bangladesh. On November
10th, UN Secretary General
Antonio Guterres has called
on Myanmar to allow the
Rohingyas to return to their
country, being aware that a
solution for the crisis would
take months, if not years.
Ongoing problem. As
Mohammed Abu Zafar, the
Ambassador of Bangladesh
to Austria, explains,
Bangladesh has already
witnessed Rohingya waves
Xyx yxy xyxyxy in 1978, xy 1991, xyxyxyxyxy 2012 and xy xyxyx
yxyx 2015, yxyxxy on two xy occasions xyxyxyxyxxyxyx
(1978, yxyxyxyx 1991) with yxyxy 200,000 xyxyxy.
and 250,000 Rohingyas
entering the country.
According to Ambassador
Zafar, the latest exodus is
the ”biggest wave“,
increasing the number of
Rohingyas in Bangladesh to
some one million displaced
people. ”The current crisis
is also the biggest
exonomic issue in
Bangladesh right now“,
Zafar says. ”It could not
only destabilize
Bangladesh's economy but
also the region and
beyond.”
A most typical scenery at the
shores of Bangladesh: fishing
boat at sunrise.
unending golden sand beaches and the serene coastal
islands off the Bay of Bengal, the picturesque hill districts
in Chittagong, the exquisite wildlife and biodiversity
of the Sundarbans or the Lawachara Forest
and the many traditional celebrations of Bengali language
and culture – and of course, the fascinating and
challenging experience of the capital Dhaka, one of
the world's mega-cities with a population of more
than 14 million people.
Without any doubt, the tourist capital of Bangladesh
is Cox's Bazar, a city in the southeast of the
country close to Myanmar named after Captain Cox,
an administration officer in the days of the British
Raj. Cox's Bazar is also known to have the world's
longest unbroken clean sandy beach, with its smooth
and soft carpeting of golden sand, sloping gently into
the clean blue waters of the Bay of Bengal for a length
of 120 kilometres. There are many other beaches in
the country that deserve to be mentioned as well.
Some of them are located in Kutubdia, Sonadia, Teknaf
or Himchhari, other like the Patenga and Parki
beaches in Chittagong. Katka in the Sundarbans and
Kuakata in Patuakhali are also among the more frequented
beaches of the country.
But a trip to Bangladesh would not be complete
without an excursion to some of the natural highlights
deeper inside the country. One of the main attractions
would be lush green tea estates, surrounding
the Madhabkunda waterfall in the north-eastern
part some 350 kilometres from Dhaka. Not very far
away one may find the largest tea gardens of the world
in Srimongol, called ”the land of two leaves and a
bud“ by the most welcoming and hospitable locals.
Also, don't miss out one of three hill districts – Rangamati,
Khagrachhari and Bandarban which represent
the wild, divine natural beauty of Bangladesh.
And finally, treat yourself with a trip through the
Sundarbans, a UNESCO world heritage site of some
1,400 square kilometres, covering a complex network
of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands and the
world's largest mangrove forest which supports a
unique assamblage of flora and fauna, including the
famous Royal Bengal Tiger, the esturarine crocodile
and the rare Ganges river dolphin, the “Susuk“.
Last but not least, it is worth to round up the exploration
with visits to some of Bangladesh's historic
places like the semi-preserved remains of the Buddhist
monasteries dating back to the 7th or 8th century
AD in Paharpur - the largest Buddhist monastery
south of the Himalaya, in Mahasthangarh, the ancient
capital of the Pundra Kingdom around 700 BC, and in
PHOTOS: FOTOLIA, VISITBANGLADESH
Mainamati, the so called “Seat of Lost Dynasties“.
Apart from these outstanding Buddhist heritage,
the country also beckons with its Islamic architectural
highlights. Undoubtedly, the most magnificent
and largest is the historic “Shait Gombuj“ mosque
built in 1459 in Bagerhat, also known as the Sixty
Dome Mosque and a world heritage site. Must-see
mosques also would be the “Star Mosque“ in Armanitola,
in the old part of Dhaka, the “Shat Gombuj
Mosjid“ or Seven Dome Mosque, also in Dhaka, or
the “Chhoto Sona Mosjid“ or Small Golden Mosque
at Gaur in Rajshahi from the 15th century. Anyone
who wants to dig deeper into the history and traditions
of Bangladesh, should also pay a visit to the
charming folklore museum in the golden village of
Sonargaon, which has been the capital of an independent
sultanate in the 14th century.
But most of all, one should open the heart and get
in touch with the warm and welcoming people of
Bangladesh, with their romantic songs, their emotional
music and their sometimes ecstatic dances, because
this is what the country really is all about. To
do so, here are some helpful phrases in Bengali. For
greeting ”Hello“, just say “āsaalāma ālēkuma“. Another
important sentence might be: ”māmi bānglā
balotē pāri nā“. That means: ”I don't speak Bengali.“
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Cercle Diplomatique 4/2017
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