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Dhaka is the most populous city of Bangladesh and is characterized by its busy urban life with varied culture including many festivities, a variety of cuisine, an entertainment industry, shopping experiences and sites of interest. These nature of these activities mirrors the secular character of the city's population.[1] Important holidays include Language Movement Day, Independence Day, Victory Day and Pahela Boishakh. Religious festivals include Eid ul-Fitr, Eid ul-Adha, Durga Puja, Buddha Purnima etc. Dhaka is known as the center of media and cinema of Bangladesh, housing many of Bangladesh's important academies. The culture of Dhaka is based on the culture of Bengal.[2]
Many of Dhaka's artworks and museums, as well as public ceremonies and rallies, serve to commemorate the war crimes committed by Pakistani war criminals and their collaborators against the Bangladeshi people. Dhaka's people congregate at the Shaheed Minar and the Jatiyo Smriti Soudho to remember the national heroes of the Bengali Language Movement and the Bangladesh Liberation War.[3] Many schools and colleges organize fairs, festivals and concerts in which citizens from all levels of society participate.
Pohela Boishakh, the Bengali New Year, falls annually on 14 April, marking the first day of the harvest season, and is popularly celebrated across the country.[3] Usually on Pôhela Boishakh, homes are thoroughly scrubbed and cleaned and people wash early and dress in fine clothes. It is customary to spend much of the day visiting relatives, friends, and neighbors and going to the fair. Fairs are arranged in many parts of the country where various agricultural products, traditional handicrafts, toys, cosmetics, as well as various kinds of food and sweets are sold. The fairs also provide entertainment, with singers, dancers and traditional plays and songs. Horse races, bull races, bullfights, cockfights, flying pigeons, and boat racing were once also popular. In Dhaka, large crowds of people gather on the streets of Shahbag, Ramna Park and the campus of the University of Dhaka for celebrations.
Despite the growing popularity of music groups and rock bands, traditional folk music remains widely popular.[4] The works of the national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam and national anthem writer Rabindranath Tagore have a widespread following across Dhaka.[5] The Baily Road area, known as Natok Para (Theater Neighborhood), is the center of Dhaka's theater movement.[6]
Bangladesh Betar is the state-run primary provider of radio services, and broadcasts a variety of programs in Bengali and English. In recent years many private radio networks, especially FM radio services, have been established in the city such as Radio Foorti FM 88.0, Radio Today FM 89.6, Radio Amar FM 88.4, ABC Radio FM 89.2, DHAKA FM 90.4 etc. Bangladesh Television is the state-run broadcasting network, providing a wide variety of programs in Bengali and English since its establishment on 25 December 1964. It has two TV channels: BTV and BTV world. BTV telecasts via terrestrial and satellite networks while BTV world telecasts via satellite only. Sangsad Bangladesh Television is another state-run TV channel which was launched on 25 January 2011 and broadcasts the parliamentary activities of Bangladesh. Cable and satellite TV networks such as Ekushey Television, Channel I, ATN Bangla, Desh TV, RTV, NTV, Banglavision, Channel 9 Bangladesh and Independent TV are amongst the most popular channels.
The main offices of most publishing houses in Bangladesh are based in Dhaka. The Prothom Alo and The Daily Ittefaq are the most popular amongst the large number of Bengali language dailies, periodicals and other publications in the city.[citation needed]The Daily Star and The Independent are among the English dailies published.[7]
Fixed-line teledensity in Bangladesh is less than 1%. Mobile penetration is 82 telephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants.[8][9]
The Bangladeshi press is diverse, outspoken and privately owned. Over 200 newspapers are published in the country. Bangladesh Betar is the state-run radio service.[10] The British Broadcasting Corporation operates the popular BBC Bangla news and current affairs service. Bengali broadcasts from Voice of America are also very popular. Bangladesh Television (BTV) is the state-owned television network. There more than 20 privately owned television networks, including several news channels. Freedom of the media remains a major concern, due to government attempts at censorship and harassment of journalists.
The cinema of Bangladesh dates back to 1898, when films began screening at the Crown Theatre in Dhaka (then, Dacca). The first bioscope in the subcontinent was established in Dhaka that year. The Dhaka Nawab Family patronized the production of several silent films in the 1920s and 30s. In 1931, the East Bengal Cinematograph Society released the first full-length feature film in Bangladesh, titled the Last Kiss. The first feature film in East Pakistan, Mukh O Mukhosh, was released in 1956. During the 1960s, 25–30 films were produced annually in Dhaka. By the 2000s, Bangladesh produced 80–100 films a year. While the Bangladeshi film industry has achieved limited commercial success, the country has produced notable independent film makers. Zahir Raihan was a prominent documentary-maker until his assassination in 1971. Tareque Masud (1956–2011) is regarded as one of Bangladesh's outstanding directors due to his numerous productions on historical and social issues. Masud was honored by FIPRESCI at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002 for his film The Clay Bird. Other prominent directors of Bangladesh cinema include Tanvir Mokammel, Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, Humayun Ahmed, Alamgir Kabir and Chashi Nazrul Islam.
In Dhaka, meals consumed at home generally include plain rice as staple with fish, meat, vegetable curries as side. Dal (Lentil soup) is common accompaniment. Plain rice is often replaced by roti or porota. Most restaurant cuisine in Dhaka are different to these meals. Kachchi biryani, chicken biryani, tehari, polao, khichuri are the most common courses in restaurants. For snacks, Mughlai porota, halim, Shingara, and samosa are common. Borhani and lacchhi are amongst popular drinks. Street carts in parks offer snacks like Chotpoti, Jhalmuri and Fuchka.
People of the city consume a varied diet. In addition to the popular Bangladeshi cuisine and South Asian variants, a large variety of international cuisine is available in Dhaka. There are restaurants specializing in Chinese, Thai, Japanese, Mexican, Italian, and other western cuisines.[12] Local and international fast food shops and chains serve burgers, fries and other readily available foods. Often many restaurants customize foreign cuisine to meet the taste of local people. For instance, most Chinese restaurants in Dhaka use recipes different from authentic Chinese food.
The following international foreign-owned restaurant chains are currently operating in the country:
There are markets in almost every part of Dhaka, where household commodities are available. Shopping malls are also found in every major avenue; some of them are Dhaka New Market, Basundhara City, Jamuna Future Park, Shimanto Square, Rapa plaza, Metro Shopping mall, Concord Twin Tower, BCS Computer City, Navana Tower, Pink city shopping mall, Mouchak Market, Eastern Plaza, Fortune mall, Eastern plus, Banga Bazar, Razdhani market, Gausia complex, Holland Centre, Suvastu Nazar Valley, Cofidence Tower, Mollah tower, Lutfun tower, Eastern Mallika, Muskut plaza, North Tower, Razlaksmi complex, Multiplan Center and many more. Kudrat-E-Khuda Avenue (former New Elephant Road), and its surrounding areas are popular shopping destinations. Jamuna Future Park is the 12th largest shopping mall in the world with a gross leasable area of 4.1million sq ft and total area of 5.45million sq ft.[13][14]
Chain stores like Shopno, Agora, Meena Bazar, Nondon, PQS are also found in most of the residential areas of the city. There are many branches of Aarong around the city where local products including clothing, handicrafts, groceries and home decor are available.
Bangla Bazar is the largest hawkers market in Dhaka. The market is situated near Chankharpul behind the campus of the University of Dhaka. It is favored by foreigners visiting Bangladesh and is famed for its reasonably priced cloth. Basundhara City is the second largest mall in the country and has more than 2,300 shops and 21 stories.
Dress
A jamdani-muslin shari in a traditional design
The most popular dressing styles for women are sari or shælwar kameez, while men usually prefer western clothing to the traditional lungi. Dhaka is credited for the revival of the jamdani sari due to the many local sari stores selling and promoting these locally hand-made traditional Bengali saris of fine patterned muslin. Jamdanis are entirely hand woven and originate from the Mughal era. Jamdanis are produced by a traditional high quality cottage industry, which is slowly dying out due to the slow production process. A single medium-range Jamdani sari may take as long as 3months to complete.[15]
Heritage
The Old City of Dhaka is home to over 2,000 buildings built between the 16th and 19th centuries, which form an integral part of Dhaka's cultural heritage.
Dhaka, formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh. It is the ninth-largest and seventh-most densely populated city in the world. Dhaka is a megacity, and has a population of 10.2 million residents as of 2022, and a population of over 22.4 million residents in Dhaka Metropolitan Area. It is widely considered to be the most densely populated built-up urban area in the world. Dhaka is the most important cultural, economic, and scientific hub of Eastern South Asia, as well as a major Muslim-majority city. Dhaka ranks third in South Asia and 39th in the world in terms of GDP. Lying on the Ganges Delta, it is bounded by the Buriganga, Turag, Dhaleshwari and Shitalakshya rivers. Dhaka is also the largest Bengali-speaking city in the world.
Bangladesh has numerous public holidays, including national memorial, religious and secular holidays of Bengali origin. The Bengali traditional calendar, known as Baṅgābda is the national and official calendar in Bangladesh. The holidays are celebrated according to Bengali, Islamic or Gregorian calendars for religious and civil purposes, respectively. Religious festivals like Eid are celebrated according to the Islamic calendar whereas other national holidays are celebrated according to the Bengali and Gregorian calendar. While the Islamic calendar is based on the movement of the moon, it loses synchronization with the seasons, through seasonal drift. Therefore, some public holidays are subject to change every year based on the lunar calendar.
Pohela Boishakh ) is the Bengali New Year celebrated on 14 April in Bangladesh and 15 April in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Jharkhand and Assam. It is a festival based on the spring harvest—which marks the first day of the new year in the official calendar of Bangladesh.
The culture of Bangladesh is intertwined with the culture of the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent. It has evolved over the centuries and encompasses the cultural diversity of several social groups of Bangladesh. The Bengal Renaissance of the 18th early 19th centuries, noted Bengali writers, saints, authors, scientists, researchers, thinkers, music composers, painters, film-makers have played a significant role in the development of Bengali culture. The culture of Bangladesh is deeply intertwined with the culture of the Bengal region. Basically Bengali culture refers to the culture of Bangladesh. The Bengal Renaissance contained the seeds of a nascent political Indian nationalism which was the precursor in many ways to modern Indian artistic cultural expression.
Bangladeshi cuisine has been shaped by the region's history and river-line geography. Bangladesh has a tropical monsoon climate. The staple of Bangladesh is rice and fish. The majority of Bangladeshi people are ethnic Bengali, accustomed to Bengali cuisine, with a minority of non-Bengalis, many used to cuisines from different traditions and regions. Bangladeshi cooking features more meat dishes than the cuisine of neighbouring West Bengal, India.
Kolkata has many festivals throughout the year. The largest and most magnificently celebrated festival of the city is Durga Puja, and it features colourful pandals, decorative idols of Hindu goddess Durga and her family, lighting decorations and fireworks. Other major festivals are Diwali, Kali Puja, Holi, Saraswati Puja, Poush Parbon, Poila Boishakh, Christmas, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, etc.
The culture of West Bengal is an Indian culture which has its roots in Bengali literature, music, fine arts, drama and cinema. Different geographic regions of West Bengal have subtle as well as more pronounced variations between each other, with Darjeeling Himalayan hill region and Duars showing particularly different socio-cultural aspects.
Tejgaon is a thana of Dhaka District in the Division of Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is in the centre of Dhaka, the capital. In 2006, the boundaries of the thana were redrawn when Tejgaon Industrial Area Thana was created out of the former larger area and again in 2009 when Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Thana was created.
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 they form the dominant ethnolinguistic group and the Bengali language is the official and primary language. Bengal has a recorded history of 1,400 years.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Bangladesh:
Both festivals of Eid celebrated in the Muslim world include cuisines specific to countries and localities.
Old Dhaka is a term used to refer to the historic old city of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. It was founded in 1608 as Jahangirabad or Jahangirnagar, the capital of Mughal Province of Bengal and named after the Mughal emperor Jahangir. It is located on the banks of the Buriganga River. It was one of the largest and most prosperous cities of the subcontinent and the center of the worldwide muslin trade. The then Nawab of Bengal Murshid Quli Khan shifted the capital from Dhaka to Murshidabad in the early-18th century. With the rise of Calcutta during the British rule, Dhaka began to decline and came to be known as the "City of Magnificent Ruins". The British however began to develop the modern city from the mid-19th century.
Mirzapur is a village in Ishwarganj Upazila of Mymensingh District in the Division of Mymensingh, Bangladesh.
Batbunia Collegiate School, formerly known as Batbunia High School, is one of the oldest secondary schools of the southern part of Khulna district under Dacope Upazila in Bangladesh. It was founded in 1965 by some of the influential persons of the locality.
The Old Dhakaites are an Indo-Aryan cultural group viewed as the original inhabitants of Dhaka. They are sometimes referred to as simply Dhakaites or Dhakaiya. Their history dates back to the Mughal period with the migration of Bengali cultivators and merchants to the city. The cultivators came to be known as Kutti and they speak Dhakaiya Kutti, a dialect of Bengali and the merchants came to be known as Khoshbas and speak Dhakaiya Urdu. There are sizeable populations in other parts of Bangladesh. The Old Dhakaiyas maintain a distinct regional identity in addition to their ethnic Bengali identity, due to cultural, geographical and historical reasons. They have been described as a wealthy but very closed-off community; evidently being a minority in their own hometown. It is said that some people living in Greater Dhaka are even unaware of the existence of an Urdu-speaking non-Bihari minority community although their presence dates back centuries.
Kala bhuna is a meat curry made of beef or mutton, originated in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Different types of spices are needed to prepare this traditional dish of Chittagong. In Bengali, the word kala or kalo means black and bhuna means deep fry. Kala bhuna gets its name from its appearance, as the meat goes blackish during a long process of deep frying it with a plenty of spices. It has become popular also in other Bangladeshi cities like Sylhet, Khulna, Dhaka etc. Nowadays, this dish is also a favorite delicacy in mezbans, weddings, eids and in sehri or iftar during the time of Ramadan. Usually, Kala bhuna is eaten with plain rice, polao, porota, naan or ruti.
Nazirabazar is a neighborhood of Dhaka. It is situated in old part of the city. There are many shoe factories. This place is famous for many restaurants and eateries also.
↑ Roy, Tirthankar (2007). "Out of Tradition: Master Artisans and Economic Change in Colonial India". The Journal of Asian Studies. 66 (4). Cambridge University Press: 963–991. doi:10.1017/s002191180700126x.
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