My aptitude runs divided a impulse you come in a immaculately easy Shalban Bihar in Mainamati. This was once a self-contained Buddhist nunnery where, a thousand years ago, monks lived, complicated as well as prayed. Its block figure – sides measuring 169 metres – was surrounded by a wall 3 metres thick with usually a single entrance. The monks lived in 115 little bedrooms laid out along a square’s edges; they prayed during a senior manager temple. Standing upon tip of a temple’s remains, you could see all these as well as more.
An very aged Buddhist civilised world preceded Muslims, Hindus as well as British in Bangladesh. Remains of this civilised world have been widespread nationwide; a ones in Mainamati have been substantially closest to Dhaka.
We had proposed southbound upon Chittagong categorical road during 8:30am upon a Saturday. The hull distortion northwest of Comilla, to a right of a highway. It took us 3 hours from Dhaka to strech a categorical attraction: Shalban Bihar as well as a adjoining museum.
Originally, a nunnery was called Bhavadev Bihar after a king, though currently a Shalban name comes from a timber of Shal (shorea robusta) trees usually outside. You can relax in this pacific timber whilst sipping tea. The brave can even suffer a horseback ride.
Behind Mainamati’s halcyon sourroundings is a unhappy story.
During a Second World War, a British troops motionless to set up an airfield in Comilla. Their contractors detected an astonishing windfall: they could get all a bricks they indispensable for building a total from very aged hull in circuitously Mainamati hills. Thus Comilla’s airfield as well as British troops buildings were finished from thousand year aged bricks.
The pillage was stopped when a supervision Archaeology senior manager listened about it though by afterwards many repairs was done.
Indeed, bricks land my thoughts as my friends as well as you try Shalban Bihar. Their distance as well as comparatively latest condition remind me that reformation has taken place. Reconstructing very aged structures to their strange selection is common in many sites together with Angkor Wat as well as even tools of Rome. This is called Anastylosis. While you admire a superb large-scale pursuit accomplished here, partial of me longs for a couple of imperfections.
Near a temple, a dozen college boys as well as girls lay upon a grass, talking. you sketch them as well as usually as you spin towards alternative subjects, a lady breaks in to a Nazrul song. Her voice is honeyed as well as so my alternative subjects have to wait.
Stepping out of Shalban Bihar, you conduct towards dual alternative circuitously sites. Itakhola Mura is in dual tools as well as someway feels some-more authentic. The second site is Rupbaner Mura. Its vast stupa dominates a surroundings. On a single side, you look in to a tiny, pyramidal request room – reconstructed entirely – as well as feel unsettled.
At slightest twenty alternative spots circuitously can be visited given time. The alliance of a sites as well as their sensuous sourroundings have Mainamati a undiluted place to try by bicycle.
For a late though tasty lunch, you stop during Highway Inn, half an hour south upon a highway. The expostulate home takes 4 hours, creation Mainamati a prolonged – though richly rewarding – day-trip from Dhaka.