Dhaka City Sights

Dhaka City divides neatly up into several sections. Old Dhaka has been described in my Dhaka Dalliance entry. In this entry I concentrate on central Dhaka, which was the old European zone and is now the modern government and commercial part of town.

Some of the highlights are in areas which are more European than Asian, thanks to the British planners and designers who laid out this section of town. There are broad tree-lined streets, nice parks and a few stately buildings. You could easily be in an English or central European small city.

Several of the sights can be seen by walking from Airport Road, near the Sheraton Hotel. These include the Old High Court, the Mausoleum for Three Martyrs, Dhaka University and its imposing Curzon Hall, the National Museum, and Ramna Park. If waking becomes too much it is easy to grab a rickshaw. Take time to observe the people because they can become a sight too. It is highly likely that you too will become a ‘sight’ for the locals, many of whom will gather around to stare at the foreigner and your activities.

This same area is a good place to catch a little local culture. Try the Shilpakala Academy near the National Art Gallery and the Shisbu Academy not far from the old High Court. The National Museum and Dhaka University also have cultural performances from time to time.

Quick Tips:

The first thing is not to expect too much. Compared to most large Asian cities, Dhaka has surprisingly few outstanding attractions. Those that are listed in this journal would probably not rate at all in many other places.

Having said that, don’t totally dismiss Dhaka. The challenge is to get past the mundane and the ordinary and see the people and culture beneath. You can see something of this in the architecture – the modern, the colonial and the plain awful – but the best place to see it is in the streets and the markets. Often these are one and the same.

Go to Old Dhaka or the New Market and just look around. The crowds will slowly dissolve and you will see individual people going about the business of living. There is the old hawker selling something worth 20 cents from a mobile stall. There are women in saris and shawls carefully buying children’s clothes or simply just looking. There are beggars, businessmen and criminals rubbing shoulders with each other. Take it all in and you will start to understand a little more about Bangladesh culture and customs.

Best Way To Get Around:

Within a local area, the best way is walking. The sidewalks are crowded but that is one of the attractions. Watch out for pickpockets and thieves and never use expensive jewelry.

Take the opportunity of a rickshaw ride. You might be horrified by your experience in the traffic but most people survive their trip and it’s good to talk about afterwards. For longer trips the motorized CNGs can give you the same thrill with slightly more protection. There are buses everywhere but I never got to master the system. You may be more adept at that. During rush hour the buses are packed with people and would not be pleasant.

The National Assembly complex was designed by the world renowned American architect Louis Kahn. The building was commissioned by the Pakistanis in 1963 but it wasn’t completed until 1982.

I had heard about the building before I reached Dhaka. One person described it to me as one of the world’s great buildings. Frankly, I don’t think it reaches those heights, but it certainly is interesting.

From the outside the building looks like an assembly of concrete cylinders and boxes joined at angles and cut with bold apertures. It is certainly different. Up close, you can see that it is made from poured-in-place concrete, brick, and marble. Unfortunately, I was not able to go inside. There are occasional tours of the building and if parliament is sitting you may be able to get a ticket to the visitor’s gallery.

The building holds the 300 member National Assembly which is elected every five years. There are also 30 positions reserved for women and these are elected by the 300 popularly elected members of parliament. The last election in 2001 was won by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its leader, Ms Begum Khaleda Zia, is Prime Minister.

This was originally built as the residence of the British Governor and is probably my favorite building in Dhaka. The imposing white building is undoubtedly the finest example of the European Renaissance architectural style in the city. The building is set in landscaped grounds and is a rare find. You can wander around but the most interesting views are of the long, ornate side that fronts the road.

This is a building to enjoy for its architectural beauty. It has extra significance in Dhaka because there are relatively few outstanding buildings of any vintage in the city. Mt photos probably do not do it justice.

If you are in this area, the Mausoleum for the Three Martyrs is nearby and is worth a few minutes of your time.

This is one of the outstanding British era buildings in Bangladesh. It is a blend of British and Mogul architecture which has resulted in a grand Victorian edifice with trimmings of cusped arches and kiosk-like turrets. Laid out in a spacious and carefully maintained garden, this double storied brick building has a large central hall, lateral wings on the east and west with several rooms, and a continuous verandah on all sides. The building can easily be viewed from the street but you are also able to enter for a closer look.

Curzon Hall is named after George Curzon, an Englishman who was a brilliant scholar at Eton College and Oxford University in the last part of the nineteenth century. He was elected a Member of the British Parliament in 1886 and in 1891 was appointed Secretary of State for India, a position he held until a change of government in 1894.

His real influence on the Indian sub-continent began in 1898 when he was appointed Viceroy of India. He introduced a series of reforms which upset many of the traditional civil servants and he clashed with Lord Kitchener who became commander-in-chief of the Indian army. Perhaps his most controversial action was agreeing to divide Bengal into two states. This lead to a fostering of Muslim hopes of a permanent Muslim state and, of course, this ultimately led to the formation of Bangladesh many years later.

Curzon was eventually forced out of office in 1905 but not before the building of Curzon Hall has started. The hall was originally built to become the town hall of Dhaka after the partition of Bengal, then when the partition was annulled in 1911 it became part of Dhaka College. When Dhaka University was founded in 1921 the building become a central part of the university and it remains part of the Science Department to this day.

The Curzon Hall has attained a great significance in the history of the so-called language movement, which was one of the significant factors in the formation of Bangladesh. It was here, in 1948, the students of Dhaka University uttered their first refusal to accept Mohammed Ali Jinnah’s declaration that Urdu alone would be the state language of the then Pakistan.

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The present Bangladesh National Museum is the successor to the Dhaka Museum which was established by the British Governor of Bengal in 1913. The museum moved to its present premises in 1983. From the outside the four-storey building is quite impressive and inside, the 46 galleries have quite extensive collections although the displays are somewhat dated.

The museum is one of the largest in south Asia and it is said to own 83 thousand pieces. The Buddhist and Brahminical stone sculptures, architectural pieces, Arabic and Persian inscriptions and pieces of calligraphy are the most significant objects from the point of view of artistic value and iconographic importance. The coin cabinet is especially rich for the study of history and numismatics of medieval Eastern India.

If you are not a museum freak you can easily miss the top floor where there are reproductions of Western paintings and some historical figures. It is best to concentrate on the lacquer painted wooden manuscript covers, the late Mughal miniatures and the water color drawings of processions in Old Dhaka. A highlight is the collection of paintings and charcoal drawings by Shilpachariya Zainul Abedin of the 1943 Great Bengal Famine.

Besides these, the medieval weapons, porcelain, filigree work, embroided quilts, pieces of ivory, and superb wooded furniture are worth seeing. There are various dioramas, which have seen better days, and collections of flora and fauna, rocks and minerals and tribal and folk art. The galleries of the liberation war and the language movement give a modern historic perspective which may help you better understand present day Bangladesh.

Opening hours are Saturday to Wednesday 10:30am–4:30pm. From October to March, it also opens on Friday from 3:30pm to 7:30pm.

Dhaka is a great place to buy leather goods and ready-made garments if you are prepared to go through the hassles of haggling. The cheapest place to buy these goods is in the markets but similar items can be found in shops dotted around the city.

Probably the cheapest place is Banga (or Bango) Bazar which is a block west of the Gulistan bus station on Kamruzzaman Sharani Street at the edge of Old Dhaka. For shopaholics this is probably a paradise but for others it can be a nightmare. There are thousands of small stalls intersected by narrow walkways which are often jammed with people. Each stall usually has several workers and the moment you stop to look (or even slow down) you will be bombarded from all sides. Some of the clothes will be seconds but many are overruns from export orders. The quality varies widely but the prices can be cheap, cheap, cheap, after you bargain vigorously. Try US$1 for a T-shirt, US$3 for blue jeans and US$5 for jackets.

One step up from here is the New Market. This is the largest market in the city and it has more class, more room and just as much choice. Prices may be a little higher because I suspect the stall rent is more but it is where I feel more comfortable. As well as clothing, there is leather, linen, jewelry, household goods, CDs and DVDs and so on. You can wander around for hours getting lost in the process, if this is your desire. The New Market is on Mirpur Road in Dhanmondi, just west of Dhaka University. It is normally closed on Tuesdays.

The newest place to shop is at Bashundhara City, a modern multi-storey building packed with shops on Pantha Path just west of the Pan Pacific Hotel. This is the closest thing Dhaka has to the shopping malls found in most Asian cities. There are small shops on about 10 floors and no-one could possibly see them all in one visit. I have found this a good place to buy CDs and DVDs but there are more clothing and material shops than anything else.

Many visitors will be interested to browse the street markets that appear on different days in various places. They are probably more interesting to look at than as places to buy. There is also some interest in some of the markets that specialize in particular goods. Eastern Plaza is a good place to buy a mobile phone, electrical goods, CDs, cameras, etc.