Art & Culture
For a supposedly ‘poor’ country, Bangladesh has a smorgasbord of
literary and culture traditions that tap directly into the region’s
history. As the former homeland for generations of Buddhist, Hindu and
Muslim kingdoms, the country has a lot of influences on its culture.
Each of these traditions has had its place in moulding the arts and
culture of Bangladeshi people. From the Buddhist and Hindu traditions
comes a tradition of tolerance and spirituality. Throughout the
countryside, one meets a gentle, open-hearted people with the purest of
intentions and a hard-working nature. From the Hindu traditions comes
the intellectual prowess of Bengali people, expressed most clearly by
the Hindu and Muslim scholars of Bengali people throughout Bangladesh
and West Bengal. Since the 14th and 15th centuries, Bengal was also a
stronghold of Muslim power and its enormous agricultural production
supported the Mughal centre further west in historic India and
eventually the seat of the British East India Company at its South Asia
base in Kolkata.
It is thus quite difficult to say exactly
what Bangladeshi culture is, except that it is made up from the
influences of those who have come before it. Today, the artistic
traditions of Bangladesh are most visible at the galleries and museums
of Dhaka; their growth is only limited by a lack of financial capacity;
certainly Bangladeshi people do not lack in terms of capacity to
express themselves artistically. For example, the nation’s most
prominent poets (e.g. Kazi Nazrul Islam, Jibananda Das) remain revered
by most people.
|