Village life

The trip to Sonargaon was also an opportunity to wander through villages and get a look into life there. Here's a few pictures to give you an idea:

Here is the local poultry farm, with the boys below the ones who look after them.


A Horlick's sign!

Here is a stupa near one of the villages, hidden amongst a clump of trees and surrounded by rice paddies.

A group of curious children who talked with us and followed us while we were wandering through the village.

Cricket scoreboard
Howing the cabbage crop.

Dhamrai trip video

If you want to see a video of the trip to Dhamrai last Friday, Chris one of the others on the trip, videoed some of it and has posted it on You Tube. Here's the link.


Enjoy!

Dhamrai 3 - The village and its architecture

Dhamrai is a small village, with much water surrounding it as it is close to a river. It was a place to watch people going about their everyday lives. Small shops were open selling pieces of brightly coloured fabric all in neat piles. Vendors sat on the ground surrounded by flatish baskets containing piles of fruit and vegetables - papaya, banana, pomegranate, guava, tomatoes, cumcumbers, eggplant and many other green vegetables that I do not know. People were walking along the street, mostly in groups; others travelled in rickshaws while there was just a few cars tooting theor horns incessantly to fight their way through the narrow streets and the other traffic. While some carried goods/shopping in their hands, most carried it on their heads.

Here are some people piling the drying rice up before it is covered. The women looked beautiful in their brightly coloured saris.

Just near the brass workshop we saw a group of monkeys playing. In fact, I think they were scampering through the trees trying to get a better look at us, as we were of them!

A side alley running from the main street. I loved the contrasting colour and the wonderful metal columns on the verandah.

This show the high water level and on the left is a family house. A wooden boat, typical of those used by many is shown in the foreground.

The architecture of some of the buildings was stunning. Apparently they date back to the time of the Raj. Not sure when that was though. Some could do with a fresh coat of paint.

How could I have photographs with one of a door? Mind you, I did not expect to be photographing doors in Bangladesh!

Dhamrai 2 - The People

Before I went to Dhamrai, people told me it was a god place to get photos of people. They were right as most people didn't mind having their photo taken. Usually I showed them the photo on the back of the digital camera, which often caused great amusement. Mind they found us just as interesting. I sat outside the brass shop for a while and some people stopped their walking along the street to just stare at me. Some a couple of minutes, or even ten minutes. The driver from the US Embassy that was there with some other people told me that they had never seen "white people" before, that is why they were staring. had to beieve isn't it.
Anyway, here's some photos:
This one is of the local transport - a rickshaw and a bicycle cart.

Local kids having fun.

More local transport, this time transporting bamboo.

Here are two boys flying kites.

A shy boy (but don't you love the hat!)

Women walking round and round the rice to spread it thoroughly before drying. Then it is piled into piled rows and covered. What colour!

Here are the men getting laden with the rice pile covering.

Dhamrai - The brass village

Today I got to go sightseeing outside Dhaka, well 2o kilometres or so outside. It did take just over an hour to get to the village of Dhamrai, known as the brass village. Here Sukanta Banik and his family are maintaining the "Lost Wax" method, which is more than 2000 years old, to produce stunning pieces in brass and bronze. His shop and workshop are located in the beautiful house on the mainstreet of Dhamrai; mind you I think there really is only 1 street!

In the "lost wax" method a wax figure is made that has the identical design to the final brass product, often a statue, that is required. Then the wax figure is covered with layers of clay to look like those below.

Then the clay-covered wax model is fired and the wax "disappears", actually igniting on exposure to the heat. After bronze or brass is then poured into the now empty mould, it solidifies then the clay is broken leaving a unique piece. A piece is shown below.
This piece below I suspect was done using one of the other methods that the workshop uses.
Many of the figures made are related to the Hindu religion with the figures beng made out 8 metals - copper, zinc, tin, iron, lead, mercury, silver and gold; which are believed to have an auspicious link to the planets. The business also bolds old brass and bronze pieces that are usually plain on the outside. Craftsmen then etch designs into the surface creating a new artifact. One of these products is the "singing bowl", which after having its rim stroked by a wooden wand it begins to hum ("sing"). Absolutely beautiful. Chloe practises here:

There was lots of beautiful pieces there - a chess set, the bowls, Hindu statues, bracelets, animal statues and ornaments to hang on the walls. But talk about heavy and expensive. I hope to go back to visit the village sometime, maybe then I will buy something. I just looked today.