Sonargaon

Cross posted from Techna Tara

Sonargaon is one of the most historical place and oldest capitals of Bangladesh. “The city of Panam” is another name of Sonargaon. Among the ancient monuments still intact, are the tomb of Sultan Ghiasuddin (1399 - 1409 A.D.), the shrines of Panjpirs and Shah Abdul Alla and a beautiful mosque in Goaldi village. A Folk Art and Crafts Museum has also been established in Sonargaon. It situated in Narayongoan district on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway about 29km away from Dhaka.

I have visited Songargaon two times in my life. First I visited some places of sonargaon and sonargaon museum when I was a school going student. Just I can only remember that I saw some statues in sonargaon museum and that time I can’t clearly understand what that was. In my university life I again visited this place in second time with some of my friends. Than I could understand the worth of Sonargaon museum. This time I not only see the statues in this museum, but again & again I tried to find-out more of our cultural wealth’s of Bangladesh on those statues and other archeological things. Really I enjoyed this time very much.

Picture has taken from outside of the sonargaon museum.

This is one of statues picture inside of sonargaon museum
where Chakma people with their dress and some materials.

This is another Statue of Chakma people, where they are working on paddy field.

In this picture one statues woman working with her
rice making machine and this is vas system to get rice from paddy.

I love to read books and I passed sometimes in the library of sonargaon museum area. In the area of sonargaon museum, there are some small stalls with handicraft where found various ornaments & shari for women and other household materials for commercial sells.

Lucrative showcase items for sell in Sonargaon museum area stall.

Soil made ornaments are displaying here for sell.

Dolls & others ornaments made by soil are display here for showcase use in home.

An art on the outside of museum building of Sonargaon from our village cultures of industry.

Front side of Sonargaon museum.

A great Statues of Zainul Abedin, the great artist of Bangladesh
selected Sonargaon to establish Folk Arts and Crafts Museum.

Many visitors from home and abroad come to visit this historical place for enjoy & to knowing about cultures of Bangladesh.

How Nari Jibon students/new bloggers are trying to go ahead

Cross posted from Sujan's Chinta

To develop Nari Jibon new bloggers, Nari Jibon arranged a photo session in last Friday (22 August 08). Four student bloggers (Jesmin ara Amzad, Jannat ara Amzad, Hira and Sufia), Nari Jibon staff blogger & Trainer Taslima Akter and Golam Rabbany Sujan went to visit Ahsan Manzil. They also visited and took pictures some of adjacent areas of Ahsan Manzil like Jagannath University and banks of Buriganga River, Victoria Park etc. Some of Nari Jibon students who receive skill training on English and Computers open blog addresses. Nari Jibon students also receive training on writing feature on different things in their classes, blog training, and digital camera operating etc. Some of them also open flickr accounts. As all the students bloggers have no own digital camera Nari Jibon authority arrange outside photo session for the students & regular bloggers. We think it will improve students’ knowledge and they will be motivated to keep more blogs.

Ahsan Manzil and (second) its display centre.

Ahsan Manzil was named by Nawab Khwaja Abdul Ghani after his son Nawab Khwaja Alimullah during the time of Mughals. It was built up during the time of Mugahls and it was used by Dhaka Nawab family. It is situated on the bank of the Buriganga River. Now it is using as a museum.

Nari Jibon bloggers are taking photos of Ahsan Manzil

Nari Jibon bloggers are introducing themselves with other visitors (foreigners) and inviting them to visit Nari Jibon. Jesmin and Jannath are talking in English with two Japanese and other people are listening to their conversation. Jesmin and Jannath are learning English at Nari Jibon.

We became sad when we saw the water of our Buriganga River is being polluted by the people and businessmen of this area and nobody care of this.

The Lalbagh Fort

By Zannat Ara Amzad

Though a small country, Bangladesh has many world Heritage sites: The historic Lalbagh Fort of Dhaka, The Shatgombuj Mosque of Bagerhat, the ruins of the Buddhist Vihara at Paharpur, Ahsan Manzil and The Sundarbans etc.

The Lalbagh Fort is an important Moghul monument of 16th century. It is a fine architectural achievement. It is an enormous Moghal architectural site by covering a very large area. Recently I visited this Moghal monument of the Lalbagh Fort with my mom and my cousin.

The Lalbagh fort is a Moghal monument. The Fort didn’t build directly by Moghal. It was built by provincial governor. In 1678 Moghal Emperor Aowrangojeb’s son Shahjada Ajam drew architecture of The Fort. In 1680 came to provincial governor Shaeysta Khan and he instantly started to construct The Fort. Suddenly in 1684 addition stopped The Fort construction. People thought that accidentally Shaeysta Khan’s elder daughter Pary bibi died, so they thought it is an inauspicious sign to build the Fort. Then The Lalbagh Fort remained uncompleted. Beside this, some people thought that, the construction of the Fort was stopped for the war in southern country. The Fort’s area was surrounded by a wall of 18 acre. The Fort has many monuments. Such as: there are three dome conspicuousness, mosque, pari biby’s shrine, audience-hall, soldier-barrack, main gate, gutter extraction to drainage and have an underground system etc.

Tiffani with her husband

When I went there then I saw many foreigners came to visit The Lalbagh Fort. Then I talked with them. At first I talked with Tiffani and her husband. Her husband is Bangladeshi, but he lives in UK. Tiffani felt very proud to visit The Fort. She is very funny and very nice.

After that I talked to Susana. She is so sweet-honey. She is very frank. She came with her friend. And her friend is Bangladeshi. She visited The Lalbagh Fort and she also enjoyed this place. Then I saw they were very happy to visit our country’s historical places. So, I feel glory for my country.

Really this Fort is wonderful. The Moghal Emperor’s architectural achievement was so good. I was so amazed to visit this place. The Moghal architecture is mind blowing. Really the scenery of Lalbagh Fort is very charming.

Such as:

Audience-Hall: The Lalbagh Fort’s audience-hall is two-storied superior. The Moghal administration-works were done in this audience-hall. Sometimes people used to live there for short time.

Now this audience-hall is used as a museum. This museum’s first’s floor has materials of war, made of iron net’s war-dresses, have a soldier dress, Humbam Khana (Royal bath), bath-tab, have a furnace and a toilet or a dress changes room etc. There is a royal bath. There was a system of steam bath. It is amazing.

And this museum’s second floor has some items on their many useful things. Such as: metal vessels, wall-hanging, many poetical-books ( these books’ languages are -- Urdu, Farsi, Arabian etc), many Holly Quran, many coins of silver, gold , copper coin, carving a character letter etc.

This museum is very nice and charming. When I saw this museum’s every side then I sometime I felt afraid that I went back in the Moghal period.

Pool: There is a charming pool in front of the audience-hall. The pool makes a reflection to glow the audience-hall.

Mosque: The three dome superior mosques are very wonderful artistry embedded.

Pari Bibi’s Shrine: Pari bibi’s shrine is made in a faint appearance to Agra’s Tajmahal. This shrine has 9 rooms. The Pari biby’s grave is in the middle of the shrine. Pari biby’s nick name is Irandut.

Soldier-barrack: The soldier-barrack is situated in front of the Pari biby’s shrine. At thes back side there is an underground visiting room.

Drainage: The drainage used to clean The Fort’s gutter.

Garden: The Lalbagh Fort’s has a very nice and big garden. This garden was built by following-up the style of Pakistan Shalimar garden. This Moghal garden is amazing. This garden’s every place is very wide. The garden has graceful and seasonal flowers. We can see the ixora in the rainy season. Muslea, petunia, Alamunda and many varieties flowers are here in this garden. The garden’s green grasses get a grown-up stage by the touch of rain. Really I feel charming to see the beauty of this garden.

At last I want to say that The Lalbagh Fort will be praised to era to era.

One day with my Brother & Cousin

By Rumi Akter

Some days ago my brother and I decided to visit in Sonargaon with a cousin, Shumi. We went to the Maghbazar and bought three tickets from the Himalay bus counter to go to Sonargaon. We waited for the bus for sometimes at the bus station and when the bus came we started our journey to Mogar Para. My cousin sat beside me and my brother sat at other side.

When we reached at the Mogar Para bus station, we took a rickshaw to go to Panam Museum. It took some minutes to reach at the Panam Museum. I saw a big gate, which was so beautiful. My brother bought three entry tickets of the Museum.

In the left side of the entry gate, we saw a cart which was made of stone and in the right side there was an old building. There were kept many useful things. Besides the building there was a pond. There were two statues of two horses beside the pond, which were made of stone. Around the Panam Museum there was very large place.

At noon we took our meal in a hotel. After finishing our meal we visited the whole area. Then my cousin felt sick. My brother and I felt very nervous for her illness. She took rest for sometime. When she felt better then my brother told to return Dhaka. But my cousin wanted to stay there for more time. So we passed more time there. But we didn’t visit anywhere. We just passed our time by gossiping.

We started our journey to Dhaka at 5:00 pm. We were very excited. It was a great experience for me. We enjoyed our journey very much. I wish I will go to Sonargaon again with my brother and cousin.

Historical Place of Bangladesh: Pictures of Sonargaon

Pictures taken by Animesh Chandra Bain