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Buddhism is the third-largest religious affiliation and formed about 0.63% of the population of Bangladesh. It is said that Buddha once in his life came to this region of East Bengal to spread his teachings and he was successful in converting the local people to Buddhism, specially in the Chittagong division and later on Pala empire propagate and patronized Buddhist religion throughout the Bengal territory. About 1 million people in Bangladesh adhere to the Theravada school of Buddhism. Over 65% of the Buddhist population is concentrated in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region, where it is the predominant faith of the Rakhine, Chakma, Marma, Tanchangya, other Jumma people and the Barua. The remaining 35% are Bengali Buddhists. Buddhist communities are present in the urban centers of Bangladesh, particularly Chittagong and Dhaka.
The culture of Bengal defines the cultural heritage of the Bengali people native to eastern regions of the Indian subcontinent, mainly what is today Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura, where the Bengali language is the official and primary language. Bengal has a recorded history of 1,400 years. The Bengali people are its dominant ethnolinguistic group. The region has been a historical melting point, blending indigenous traditions with cosmopolitan influences from pan-Indian subcontinental empires. Bengal was considered to be the richest part of Islamic medieval India and during the era of the Bengal Sultanate it was described to be a major trading nation in the world, while during Mughal times, having triggered the proto-industrialization, its economy was worth 12% of global GDP. However, significant socio-economic inequalities existed during this period. As a part of the Bengal Presidency, it also hosted the region's most advanced political and cultural centers during British rule. Historically Feudalism has been widespread in the entire eastern Indian region. The feudal system flourished to a large extent under the British administration, which served as a means to exploit the Indian peasants by the British colonizers. This created a class of rich landlords in Bengal and a large population of poor peasants. It is noteworthy that a major portion of the Bengali intellectual community during the British era emerged from this wealthy class of landlords, as primarily they belonged to well educated families and got the economic opportunities to receive English education, often from abroad. The lower social classes remained in abject poverty and illiteracy. Thus, although the contribution of the Bengali intellectual community has been immense towards literature, science, politics and the Indian freedom movement, but still as it flourished under an exploitative imperial government, it mostly constituted of individuals belonging to the wealthy landlord families.
Bipasha Hayat is a Bangladeshi actress, model, painter and playback singer. She won Bangladesh National Film Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film Aguner Poroshmoni (1994). She earned Meril Prothom Alo Awards in 1998, 1999 and 2002.
Kalpana Chakma was a human rights activist and feminist from Bangladesh who held the position of Organizing Secretary of the Hill Women's Federation. She and her two brothers were abducted on 12 June 1996 from her home at Lallyaghona village allegedly by the members of an armed group. Kalpana Chakma is still missing. No one has been tried for her disappearance. She is presumed to have been killed after her abduction.
Anusheh Anadil is a Bangladeshi musician, artist, cultural activist, and social entrepreneur. The band 'Bangla' was the first female lead band from Bangladesh that became iconically popular in both Bangladesh and West Bengal (India), for their first album Kingkortobbobimuro (2002). Their rendition of spiritual folk songs, along with their own original songs, became a revolution for bringing the sounds of the village bard into popular culture. They helped popularize the philosophy of Fakir Lalon Shai, as a breath of fresh air, to the urban youth. Bangla's second album Prottutponnomotitto (2005) is a tribute to Fakir Lalon Shai. The album questions religious extremism and corrupt politics by using songs of the insightful mystic. The band 'Bangla' inspired many young musicians from both sides of Bengal to rediscover their roots.
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The Samdani Art Foundation is a private art foundation founded in 2011 in Dhaka, Bangladesh that aims to increase artistic engagement between the art and architecture of Bangladesh and the rest of the world. It is best known for producing the bi-annual Dhaka Art Summit, which is the highest daily visited contemporary art exhibition in the world, welcoming over 477,000 visitors in its fifth edition in February 2020. The foundation produces education programmes and exhibitions across the year in collaboration with Bangladeshi and international institutions, and is one of the most active art institutions in South Asia.
The wife or daughter of the Bengali kumar or potter creates all products which do not involve the use of the wheel. They also paint all the products that are painted in the potter's family workshop, the ghata, sara or pot cover, dolls etc. In the weavers household the women do almost all else except work on the loom. However, women have never been part of the artisan tradition of the country. They have never been part of a guild. There were never any female swarnakar(goldsmith), sutradhar(carpenter) or takshak(carver). The economic structure of producer and consumer relationship that is current in the country has always been male-centristic. Yet the first painter that finds mention in Sanskrit literature is Chitralekha, who had run of the inner chambers of the Bana king of Pragjyotishpura. The painting skills of the companions of Radha find repeated mention in Vaishnava literature."The touch of the Bengali woman's dexterous hands is to be found in all of Bengal's folk arts. About the culinary arts, Dineshchandra Sen says that the artistic skills woman shows in making sandesh(a sweetmeat) is such that they achieve the beauty of flowers and fruits. There are hundreds of moulds made of clay by Bengali women, their decoration are a pleasure to behold. The dexterity they show with the coconut kernel cannot be appreciated by any one who has not seen the coconut sweets made by the women of East Bengal.
Dilara Begum Jolly is a Bangladeshi print artist, sculptor, installation artist, and painter. She is known for her work highlighting discrimination against women and explicitly presenting feminist perspectives in her work.
Ferdousi Priyabhashini was a Bangladeshi sculptor. She was the first one to publicly announce herself as Birangona, a term coined by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman for the rape victims of the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971. Government of Bangladesh awarded her Independence Day Award in 2010.
Hamiduzzaman Khan is a Bangladeshi artist and sculptor. He is well known as a sculptor for his theme and form oriented sculptures, in particular sculptures on the theme of Bangladesh War of Liberation and birds. Following the introduction of modernity in sculpture in Bangladesh in the 1950s by Novera Ahmed, Khan was instrumental in the popularization of sculpture in the country through his distinctive form of modernity. Influenced by Alberto Giacometti and Henry Moore, his works manifest expressionism, minimalism, and a constant exploration of purity of material. He worked on both figurative as well as abstract genres.
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Tayeba Begum Lipi is a Bangladeshi artist and the co-founder and trustee of Britto Arts Trust. She has received Grand Prize at the 11th Asian Art Biennale, Bangladesh 2004. Lipi is a multimedia artist who has engaged in paintings, prints, installations and videos. Her works have been featured in notable group exhibitions, including the 54th Venice Biennale (2011) and Colombo Art Biennale (2012). She was also the commissioner for the Bangladesh Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011).
Anai Mogini is a Bangladeshi women's football defender who plays as a right-back for Bashundhara Kings Women. She currently plays at the Bangladesh women's national under-17 football team. She was a member of the AFC U-14 Girls' Regional Championship – South and Central winning team in 2016 in Tajikistan. She scored a goal in that tournament. She is the older twin sister of Anuching Mogini, who also plays football.
Kanak Chapa is a Bangladeshi singer. She received the Bangladesh National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer three times, for her performance in the films Love Story (1995), Premer Taj Mahal (2001) and Ek Takar Bou (2008). She published her autobiography Sthobir Jajabor in 2011 and a poetry book Mukhomukhi Joddha in 2012.
Atia Islam Anne is a Bangladeshi artist known for her work on women's regrets, needs, despair and frustration and, more broadly, violence against women. Along with artists like Dilara Begum Jolly, Kanak Chanpa Chakma, and Fareha Zeba, Anne is part of a movement of women artists whose feminist work became more popular during the 1990s in Bangladesh.
Iffat Ara Dewan is a Bangladeshi Rabindra Sangeet singer and painter. She was awarded the Bangla Academy Rabindra Award in 2012.
Najib Tareque, is a Bengali artist, printmaker and writer based on Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is best known for her New media artworks and one of the pioneers of online art galleries in Bangladesh. Tareque was the founding member of Jolrong, one of the first online art galleries in South Asia. Since 1987, he has been part of various group and solo exhibitions both in the country and abroad. He participates more than twenty individual and joint exhibitions in the country and abroad.
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References
- ↑ "Kanak Chanpa Chakma". Archived from the original on March 5, 2016. Retrieved January 23, 2014.
- ↑ "Hanoi hosts Bengal Delta Colours exhibition". Talk Vietnam. June 6, 2013. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
- ↑ Jahangir, Apurba (March 6, 2015). "A FREE SPIRIT". The Daily Star. Retrieved May 9, 2015.
- ↑ "Kanak Chanpa Chakma Speaks to VOA Bangla Service". VOA Bangla. November 16, 2008. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
- 1 2 "Culture breeds kinship for Kanak Chanpa Chakma". Dhaka Calling. November 5, 2013. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
- 1 2 "Kanak Chanpa's tribute to the Chakmas". Dhaka Mirror. November 19, 2015. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
- ↑ "Kanak Chanpa Chakma's artistic passions". The Daily Star. May 24, 2013. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
- ↑ "Kanak Chanpa Chakma". Bengal Art Gallery. Archived from the original on May 25, 2008.
- ↑ "Kanak Chanpa Chakma's artistic passions". The Daily Star. May 24, 2013.
- ↑ "Gallery". Kanak Chanpa Chakma's personal site. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
- ↑ "29 artistes get Nat'l Film Award 2014". The Daily Star. February 25, 2016.
- ↑ Kanak Chanpa Chakma. Duncan Brothers, Dhaka. 2005. Retrieved March 8, 2015.
