A Survey of Historical Achitecture in Bangladesh - Through Photographs

[bujhee kom]

A Survey of Historical Architecture in Bangladesh - Through Photographs

A collection of ruins,
old palaces,
zamindar houses,
colonial structures,
historical Islamic mosques & Hindu temples,
pre-Christ (B.C.) ancient historical Buddhist monasteries, temples, institutions & palaces,
old cities,
Old mazaar, shrine & mausoleum

Thread created through web/forum/blog photographs taken by many people.
Photo credits are given to the best of my ability.
Sources verified to the best of my ability. If unverified, noted as 'Unverified'.
Locations (district, town or village) of structure noted.

Exact/accurate built year(circa) is very important (a must), I know and will be added a little later. A lot of work, but will be noted with images soon.

A significant problem I found creating and listing this catalogue in a thread format is that I could not group the structures (photographs) by geographical zone/district or division. I found it extremely hard to list/post them that way. If I could, it would have been a lot better thread.

Please contribute if you can, but please try to maintain image size format and provide photo credit or include source

Starting with, the map of Bangladesh:

General detail

www.nationsonline.org


Divisions by color

www.mediabangladesh.net


Districts by color

www.globalsecurity.org

[bujhee kom]

Sonargaon - Panam Nagar - Narayanganj


www.wondermondo.com


Ibnul Islam


www.bangladesh-travel-assistance.com/Rabbi

[bujhee kom]

Puthia Shiva Mandir (temple ruins), Rajshahi


wikipedia.org

[bujhee kom]

Sadarbari, Old Dhaka (Puran Dhaka), 1901


farm9.staticflickr.com



www.worldexecutive.com

[bujhee kom]

Ruplal House, Old Dhaka (Puran Dhaka)


alamy.com

Ruplal House - Interior

pinimg.com

[aklemalp]

Originally Posted by bujhee kom
Puthia Shiva Mandir (temple ruins), Rajshahi


wikipedia.org

Wow, this is magnificent. How old are these structures/ruins?

Btw, this is a very informative thread Zaved bhai

Looking forward to more photos.

[bujhee kom]

Shaat Gambuj Masjid (Sixty Dome Mosque), Bagherhaat


k3.picdn.net/shutterstock

[bujhee kom]

Kantajir Mandir, Dinajpur


minibangladesh.weebly.com


wikipedia.org

[Roy_1]

Exactly my kinda thread, thanks so much BK da, keep them coming please

[bujhee kom]

Balihar Rajbari (palace), Sadar Subdistrict, Naogaon


mynaogaon.blogspot.com


Unverified...

[bujhee kom]

Dubolhati Rajbari (palace), Dubolhati, Naogaon


MyNoagaon.blogspot.com


dubalhati.blogspot.com

[bujhee kom]

Mahadevpur Rajbari (palace), Mahadevpur, Naogaon

[bujhee kom]

Korotia Zamindar Bari (palace), Tangail

[bujhee kom]

Dayarampur Rajbari (palace), Natore



http://heritageinbangladesh.blogspot.com


http://heritageinbangladesh.blogspot.com


http://heritageinbangladesh.blogspot.com

[bujhee kom]

Chini Masjid (Glass Mosque), Saiyadpur


bangladeshunlocked.blogspot.com

[bujhee kom]

Rani Bhabani Rajbari (palace), Natore



"Natore Zamindars was one of the largest Zamindaris of Bengal. The originators of this Zamindari were Ramjivan and Raghunandan both sons of Kamdev. Ramjivan's daughter-in-law was Rani Bhawani(1716-1795), a legendary name in Bengal politics in the 18th century and an endearing personality in everyhome of the country due to her boundless generosity and public spirit."

http://mollikainn.com/index.php/Sight/sightSee

[bujhee kom]

Kushumba Masjid (mosque), Natore



"Kusumba mosque is named after the village Kusumba. It was built during the period of Afgan rule in Bangladesh by a high-ranking official named Sulaiman. It was built under one of the last Suri rulers. His name was Ghiyasuddin Bahadur Shah.Although the mosque was built under the suri rule, the architectural pattern was not influenced by the earlier Suri architecture of North India."

http://mollikainn.com/index.php/Sight/sightSee

[bujhee kom]

Originally Posted by aklemalp
Wow, this is magnificent. How old are these structures/ruins?

Btw, this is a very informative thread Zaved bhai

Looking forward to more photos.

Originally Posted by Roy_1
Exactly my kinda thread, thanks so much BK da, keep them coming please

My dear Paramanand and dear Roy,

Thank you both. These few entries are barely the scratch on the surface. It will take a long time for me to list them all. I collected all the info with the help of my wife, took almost three + weekends and many nights. Correct verified dates or circa of erection of the buildings will be posted. I will do that after let's say every 15-20 entries, in a single post - like for the above 20 buildings...
1. Sadarbari, Old Dhaka, 1901.
2. xxxx, xxx, 1887

It is very draining, but it is indeed extremely enjoyable. We have a plethora/ocean of archeologically significant/historic architectural buildings in Bangladesh. In every nook and corner of the land, every district. It is absolutely amazing.

I will give further detailed credits to individuals who took these photographs by making their journey to these places all across Bangladesh. As well as sites/books/source where the photographs came from.

If I can, I will show site plans, base plan, layout plans and point out where the photograph was taken from. I will try to post photographs showing the current and old glory state of the structure if I can, as well as progressive photographs of recording deterioration the buildings, if I can. Have plans to locate nearest highway, bus stops, train station for each structure and post them along with map. As well as nearby accommodations and dining places.

BTW, I can probably only catalogue 10-15 buildings per weekends. For real guys, It takes some massive effort, I love it though. My wife is also helping me a lot.

[Shadow]

Very good effort. I love this thread.

[Nocturnal]

Let's help BK da ...

Lalbagh Fort @ Old Dhaka:

Lalbagh Fort or Fort Aurangabad, an incomplete Mughal palace fortress at Dhaka on the river Buriganga in the southwestern part of the old city.

The construction of the fort was commenced in 1678 AD by prince muhammad azam during his 15 month long vice-royalty of Bengal, but before he could complete the work he was recalled by aurangzeb. His successor, shaista khan did not continue the work, though he stayed in Dhaka up to 1688. His daughter bibi pari (Lady Fairy) died here in 1684 and this led him to consider the fort to be ominous.

A view of the Lalbagh Fort



Site plan of Lalbagh Fort



Partial view of the Fort showing Diwani-i-Aam, Tomb and the Mosque



South gateway of Lalbagh Fort



The light show at Lahbagh Fort (Feb 2014)


Source:
1. http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Lalbagh_Fort
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lalbagh_Fort
3. www.wikimedia.org
4. www.dhakatribune.com

[Nocturnal]

We used to live 20 mins walking distance from Lalbagh Fort for many years when I was growing up.
I visited this fort hundreds of times in past.
The last time I visited this place with my newly wed wife back in 2009. In that day trip we also had Biryani at famous old dhaka "Royal Restaurant". She was impressed by both - Fort & Food in Lalbagh!

Royal Restaurant - link

[bujhee kom]

Thank you my dearest Noc (Pasha) for the great photo of the Pori-Bibi's Mazaar (mausoleum) at the Lalbagh Fort during an evening light show.

Pori-bibi was the beloved daughter of Shaestha Khaa (Mughal Governor/Subedar of Bengal). Pori Bibi died if an illness in Dhaka while Shaestha Khaa was in charge of governing Bengal and living in Dhaka overseeing the construction of the fort. It is said (unverified) that Pori-Bibi's body was later removed from this grave site by her father when he left Bengal and moved back to Jalalabad (unverified) and took 'her' with him (to be re-buried). But the beautiful mausoleum remained.

The fort was never completed as the Mughal empire declined while it was under construction. At the later part of the construction, after the death of his daughter, when Shaestha Khan left Bengal, Emperor Aurongazeb's son - Prince Azam Shah oversaw the work. Azam Shah later became the last emperor of the dynasty. And the British took over Bengal/the Subcontinent after his weak rule ended. It is a shame that none of those fountain heads work now, they were never restored.

Thank you Nocturnal again for the story of your trip there with your newly wed wife. Also the insight, the note of the biriyani house and the link. This is great.

Also Noc, remeber -our BC huzur communist comrade(!) and professional part-time Ghotaok Auntu is from Lalbagh - 'Patla Khan Lane', very close to the fort!

[Nocturnal]

^^ you are most welcome BK da.
I thought it would be a good idea to share few lines of personal experience of the posted sites if we had any!

From your earlier posted sites I only visited 2 places so far.
keep in mind I'm living abroad for last 14 years now and hardly visit back home!
Sonargaon - Panam Nagar - Narayanganj
Rani Bhabani Rajbari (palace), Natore

may write some memories if time permits!

Also, how I not remember our own BC huzur Auntu!

[jabbar]

Great to see all the wonderful buildings and sights.
It is a shame that Bangladesh government does not maintain these historical treasures, they are all in varying degrees of ruin ...

[bujhee kom]

Originally Posted by Shadow
Very good effort. I love this thread.

Originally Posted by jabbar
Great to see all the wonderful buildings and sights.
It is a shame that Bangladesh government does not maintain these historical treasures, they are all in varying degrees of ruin ...

My dear Shadow bhaiya and dear Jabbar uncle,

Thank you for checking these entries out. So far, this is just a scratch on the surface....
We have a tremendous amount of historically significant building and structures in Bangladesh. My wife and I were overwhelmed by them, by the volume of them. And the reasons we will find these historical structures in despair and super bad shape, is because,
a. The building materials that were used in the region(Bengal) to build them...mostly brick, not much of stone.
b. Our region's very moist, wet, humid climate with heavy rainfalls.
c. Poverty and our government's inability to protect them, restore them or even secure them as national heritage and give proper protection from even mere vandalism or squatters and jobor-dokhol by the local muscles.