The Culture Of Bangladesh

Past Present And the Future

A small attempt to focus the concern on our threatened native culture S. M. Mohaimen 4th August 2007

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Group on- 03 COURSE CODE: B103

The Culture of Bangladesh : Past Present and the Future

Shenin Ziauddin Course Instructor Department of Banking University of Dhaka

S. M. Mohaimen
BBA 13TH BATCH Roll- 48 Session- 2006-07

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DEPARTMENT OF BANKING UNIVERSIY OF DHAKA

To Shenin ziauddin Course teacher Department of banking University of Dhaka Sub: latter of transmittal Dear Madam With due respect and humble submission I would like to thank you for giving me the task to report on Culture of Bangladeshi - past present and the future. Culture is the soul of any nation. Every nation in this free world has its own culture. We Bangladeshis have our own unique culture. So it is important to us to know our culture. And this is the perfect opportunity to cast light on our culture . So I therefore submitting you this report with honor. Yours Sincerely S. M. Mohaimen Roll no- 48, Session- 2006-07 BBA 13th Batch Department Of Banking University Of Dhaka Date: 4th August 2007

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I am the student of the banking department of the University of Dhaka, would like to thank my teacher for giving this task to report on the culture of Bangladesh. The culture of Bangladesh is unique in its own way. But we have stopped recognizing it . So it is high time we recognized it. And show the proper respect.

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Executive Summary.... Page- 06 The trends of Bangladeshi culture... Page-07 The Present scenario- ....
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The uncertain future-........... Page-09 References.. ... Page-09

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The culture bears the identity of a the nation. Every free nation must have a culture. Our Bangladeshi culture makes us different from the other nations. We have been cherishing this culture for centuries. And through our these years this culture has mixed in our blood. There is no way of resisting it. Erasing this culture is like erasing our own identity. We have to come forward to protect our culture, after all its our duty to do so.

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We have came a long way toward the modernization. And through out this path one thing has always stayed with us and that is our culture. Yes, we Bangladeshis have a culture of thousand years old. This culture has made us different from the others. There no other culture that can be compared in case of its uniqueness.

The things that made our culture so unique and diversified are as follows The Pohayla Baishak
From the era of the Jamidars this old age tradition has been celebrated till today. It is celebrated on the first day of the bangla year. During the time of the Jamidars, people came to the Jamidar palace and gave this taxes and The Jamidars also greeted them with sweets and entertained them. Now a day this tradition has become a celebration on this day boys and girls come to the street wearing their traditional dress like panjabies and saries. Specially in Dhaka every on this day a big meala is arranged. People wait eagerly for this Meala. This is a day for the business man, they close their previous accounts and open the new accounts. And they decorate this business place with various things. When customers come they greet them and entertain them with sweets. The celebration of new bangla year has also drawn many foreigners. As long the Bangladesh live this age old tradition will be celebrated with joy and festivity. an ancient fine muslin cloth with geometric or floral designs. Although jamdani usually means sari, there are jamdani scarves, kurtas, turbans, skirts, handkerchiefs, screens and tablecloths as well. In the 17th century, dresses were also made of jamdani fabric. Towards the end of the Mughal Empire, a special type of jamdani cloth used to be made for the Nepalese regional dress 'ranga'.

Jamdani:

Folk tales:

Folk tales may include fairy tales, called rupkatha or parikahini in Bangla. Although called 'fairy tales', all such stories do not necessarily have fairies, but are stories of a prince's adventures and his winning the hand of a beautiful princess or about the

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rewards bestowed on a kind girl because of her humility, kindness, hard work etc. These stories contain accounts of magical powers, divine help etc. In German, this type of tale is called 'marchen'. Books like Thakurmar Jhuli, Thakurdadar Jhuli, Thandidir Thale etc, edited by dakshinaranjan mitra majumder, are collections of fairy tales. Riddles: Riddles in the main, have a provocative beginning and some of them, towards the end, even hint at prizes. They are mostly full of words that are solely designed to perplex people. Brevity is what can make riddles wittier. They can be composed both in prose and verse. Intellect, subtle observation, creativity, laughter, exercise of retentive faculty, use of allegory, metaphor and simile, the sheer joy of solving problems and wit come together in the making of riddles. Based on the subject-matter, folk riddles may further be divided into: (1) riddles about mankind, god and goddess, such as a) man and his body parts, b) famous people, c) the Puranic stories, and d) gods and goddesses; (2) riddles about nature, such as a) trees and creepers and b) sky, stars and the nature; (3) related to household affairs, such as a) relatives, b) food items, c) household utensils, d) behaviour and manner and e) rites and rituals; (4) riddles about birds, animals and insects; (5) riddles about musical instruments; (6) related to legends or famous stories; (7) riddles about arithmetic or numbers, and (8) miscellaneous. Alpana: Alpana(Ritual Painting) is a kind of folk art and a spontaneous expression of the artistic sensibility of people. It retains the past experience of the community and, at the same time, is very much contemporary in feeling. It is mainly the womenfolk who have kept the art alive in this part of the subcontinent. They retain connections with age-old traditions and at the same time are bold enough to experiment with new forms and new colours. They are conscious of the changing moods of the seasons and their creativity thus marks the changing cycle of the year. Pottery: Pottery appeared in Bengal, in all probability, in or around 1500 BC. In an alluvial country like Bengal, fine clay is a distinctive geological feature. The ancient inhabitants of the region exploited this natural resource for making numerous potteries.

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Archaeological sites, such as pandu rajar dhibi, mahisdal, Bharatpur, Mangalkot, chandraketugarh, tamralipti, rajbadidanga, Harinarayanpur and Bangarh of West Bengal and mahasthangarh, govinda bhita, bhasu vihara, wari-bateshwar, Raja Harish Chandrer Badi, mainamati and paharpur of Bangladesh have produced varieties potsherds/potteries, namely Black-and-red Ware, Northern Black Polished Ware, Rouletted Ware, Amphorae, Black-slipped Ware, Knobbed Ware etc. While the potteries from the Chalcolithic and the early historic sites have diagnostic characteristics, the early medieval, medieval and late medieval potteries do not; since in later period metal and other utensils replaced traditional potteries used as utensils and for everyday religious and other household purposes. The main types of potteries are described below:

Folk games:

Folk games are divided into three groups based on the environment in which the games are played: land, water and sky. Games played on land are known as games of land; those played on water, such as swimming and boat-racing, are games of water; and flying kites or pigeons are games of the sky. The one traditional water sports that is special in Bangladesh is the traditional boat race. In every rainy season the boat men with their boat decorated with traditional arts race in the water of the mighty river Padma

Gaye Halud:

(literally, turmeric-smeared body) an important part of the marriage rituals in Bangladesh, is a beautifying and blessing ceremony that has been observed since ancient times. Newlyweds are believed to be vulnerable to misfortune and the evil eye. tuorder to give protection to the bride and bridegroom. In Hindu society this ceremony is known as gatra haridra or adhivas and dates back to Vedic times. Muslims refer to it as gaye halud, haldi kota, tilwayi, kud deoya, etc. Though Muslims from Persia, Arabia, Turkestan brought with them their own marriage rituals, they adapted many local customs and rituals including gaye halud.

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We have been cherishing these cultural events for decades, but due to the cultural assault we are about to loose these vital parts of our culture. In this jungle of high rise buildings small boys and girls are rarely seen playing games . More over due to the presence of various dish channels we are about to lose our own identity and some mobile companies are creating extra problem. To day boys and girls can hardly say about our own history and glory.

The way every thing is going today on thing is sure that we will loose our valuable culture. It is the high time we did some thing to protect the culture. We have to take every possible measures to stop this cultural aggression. Our young generations have to made conscious about our own cultural values. In the end one thing should be remembered No nation can survive with out its culture. And in order to hold the future we have to have a strong grip of our culture. It is the moral duty of every senior citizen to make our young generation aware of their own culture. But are we there? Are we actually bothered about this things?

Reference
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www.banglapedia.com www.google.com