KUAKATA- A BEACH OF SUN

Kuakata is on the southern tip of Patuakhali district. It is 320 km from Dhaka (capital city of Bangladesh) and 70 km from Patuakhali town. The Kuakata sea-beach is 30 km long and 6 km wide. The long and wide beach at Kuakata has a severe natural setting like coconut forest, Gangamoti Reserve Forest, Patra Reserve Forest and Jhao Bon (Tamarisk forest). The sun rises from the sea in the east and at day’s end sinks into it in west. Both the charming sights can be seen from the beach itself. That perhaps makes Kuakata one of world’s unique beaches. Kuakata means, “digging a well”. There is a two hundred years old well (kua) here. Rakhain is a familiar tribe of Bangladesh. Many Rakhains live in Kuakata and adjacent area. They have come from Myanmar. To drink pure water the Rakhains have dug the well before two hundreds years ago. There is a solar telephone exchange here. Ornaments made of sea cockle and snails are available here. The main occupation of people here is fishing. Fishermen dry fishes on a point of the beach. Keranipara is the nearest Rakhain village from the beach. The Rakhains are very hospitable. In the village there is a Buddha temple named “Seema Mandir”. It is on a mound. One will have to put off shoes to entire the temple. There is an incarnation of Buddha here, made of eight metals. Kuakata was not familiar to the tourist even 12/13 years ago. But it is now a favorite destination to the tourist. But access to this area is a bit difficult yet. There are six ferries to the Dhaka- Kuakata road. But government of Bangladesh has already taken initiatives to develop this area as an attractive tourist spot. Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation has been already established a motel here named “Holiday Homes”. Government has also planned to create a cultural village around the beach based on the socio-cultural life of the tribal people living there and introduction of different types of sports including water sports in the beach area.

Quick Tips:

You will have need at least two days to visit everything attractive in this area. Do not bath in the sea during the falling of the sea.

Best Way To Get Around:

Water and land transport are available from Dhaka. But accessibility here is not easy yet. There are six ferries in this road from Dhaka to Kuakata.

The highest Buddha incarnation of Bangladesh is in Misripara. It is 12 Km. away from Kuakata sea beach. There is a narrow, muddy road to go there. The Rakhains trust on Buddhism. So, they have made the highest incarnation of Buddha. It is 70 ft. high. It is made of wood. This Buddha Temple is made of tin and wood. The design of the temple is like that of Indo-Chin. There is five other White-Buddha in this temple. We were informed that every white Buddha weighs 9/10 kg. The temple is in a silent and shady place. I with my uncle was glad to visit it.

At the afternoon I with my friend Zakir entered in Foyoz Mia’s coconut forest. It is a big forest cultivated by Foyoz Mia. Its area is about 200 acres. Not only coconut trees there are many other trees, shrub and bushes here. We enjoyed the forest.

But we missed our path and felt helpless. The roar of the sea was heard. So, we decided to go towards the roar and after crossing some natural obstacles we reached on a point of the beach. The tamarisk forest was on the left of us. Walking two minutes we reached at the forest.

A breeze was coming from the sea and the swishing of the tamarisks trees was meditative. But the sun has become already red. So, we ran towards the main point of the beach. But it was too late. We thought that we could not reached there before the sun set. So, we stopped. We saw from far away that countless people are looking at the setting sun standing on a line. This line of thousands men looking at one direction was more attractive to me than the sunset. They were looking like the devotee of the goddess sun. I will never forget this scene.