Week Four: Sylhet

The day after we went to Old Dhaka, I went to Sylhet (a city in northeast Bangladesh) to visit a classmate and a neonatal health project. Sylhet Division (similar to a state or province) is full of flat plains filled with miles upon miles of rice paddies.

History: in 1303 AD a Muslim saint (Shah Jalal) arrived to Sylhet from Mecca with 306 Sufi saints and army generals.  This group of people defeated Raja Gour Gobinda (current power holder) and converted all the Hindus and Buddhists in the area, who then began to further spread Islam in the region. Shortly after Shah Jalal’s death, Sylhet because a centre of Islam in Bengal and in historical documents, Sylhet is often referred to as Jalalabad during the era of the Muslim rule. 

In the late 18^th century, when then British East India Company had moved into the region, they became interested in it for its placement in the war against Burma. Gradually, Sylhet was assimilated into British control and was governed as a part of Bengal and then Assam, a state of India which it borders on the North. It remained as part of Assam until independence in 1947, when a referendum made it part of East Pakistan. 

At the same time of independence, many British settled here, so it is not uncommon to find people with lighter skin (definitely saw) and slight London accents (apparently!). Also, the majority of Bangladeshi immigrants to Britain is from this region (like 95%) and has stronger ties to the homeland than other Bangladeshis. These immigrants send tons of money back, which is fed into the local economy and has allowed the development of this area. This is apparent in the huge stores that have been built, but no one seems to shop at.

Landscape: So, like I said, miles and miles of rice paddies. They are divided in two ways: 1) split into squares that are separated by thin raised aisles of soil so people can walk between or 2) by use of canoes that just maneuver through the water. Water floods the divisions to help the seedlings grow and then once it gets there, people hand pick the stalks, and remove the rice from the stems and leave them to dry in the sun on mats. It was pretty cool to see the process and I'm sure this doesn't serve as a great explanation. The men who used the canoes to maneuver through the rice wore straw, circular hats reminiscent of South East Asia. It was the typical BBC picture of Thailand or China - definitely not what I expected to see in Bangladesh. Granted, I'm not sure if I had any expectations to begin with. 

Fishing also seemed to be a popular choice of vocation in the area. Men set up bamboo poles against bridges in order to create a triangle of net. They left the net in the water long enough for enough fish to get caught and then removed it and, ahh-ha, fish! Although Bangladesh used to be a huge fishing port, apparently a lot of jobs are being lost in the industry due to industrialization (makes sense).

This is more of what I expected Bangladesh to be like - agriculturally-based, cows grazing in green fields, villages of houses with corrugated tin roofs. It was great to get out of Dhaka and into the country-side to see more of Bangladesh...