Holy Land

Over the millenniums several places have become famous tirthas or places of pilgrimages in Bengal. A large concentration of those places are in today’s Bangladesh. Many notable monks, rishis (Hindu saints), bhikkhus (Buddhist saints), and famous personalities were born here. Many Muslim tombs of holy pirs and darbeshes exist here, notable among them is the mazar (cemetery) of Shah Jalal in Sylhet. There exist several famous Christian churches.

It is said that in the Golden Age of Bengal, Bengali Buddhist monks spread their faith in Tibet and Sri Lanka, and Hindus brought Hinduism to Shyam [Thailand], Cambodge [Cambodia], and in Jabadwip [Indonesia].

To document the religious heritage of Bangladesh, the Bangla Academy in Dhaka has published several books: on Hindu temples [Ratanlal Chaakraborty, Bangladesher Mandir, Bangla Academy, Dhaka, B.S. 1394,] Buddhist stupas and temples, and Muslim mosques and mazars.

In Bangladesh [Bengal] Hindu traditions of local, vedic, non-vedic, tribal, Mongolian along with Buddhist and Islamic, have all merged to give her a distinctive identity. Here the traditions of the Saivaites Saktas and Vaishnavs, (the predominant Hindu groups in Bengal) have merged producing many festivities from worshiping of tulshi plants and baniyan trees to snake goddess Manasa to Gods Kali, Shiv and Sri Krishna.

For the convenience of travel and for hotel accommodation, Bangladesh could be divided into six tirtha (pilgrimage) regions. For example, the Dhaka-Narayanganj-Mymansingh region of Central Bangla [Madhya Bangla, the Khulna-Jessore-Kushtia [West central Bengal], Paschim Madhya Bangla, Barisal-Faridpur’s Coastal Bengal [Jal Bangla], the Chittagong-Comilla’s Southeast Bengal [Dakhin-Purba Bangla], Sylhet and North Bengal [Uttar Bangla].

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Tags: Bangladesh, buddhism, Hinduism