𝑩𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒓𝒃𝒂𝒏, 𝒂 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒄 𝒃𝒆𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒚 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒂 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆.
Bandarban, a hilly district on the South-east of Bangladesh is a place of scenic beauty, I have ever visited. I love travelling and discovering the beauty around my country.
In the last August 2017.I had an opportunity of travelling to Bandarban. First of all it was thought to be just an underdeveloped place but reaching there all my ideas were changed. It's a place to be seen as a must.
Sangu River, Bandarban, Bangladesh [1]
Nature has adorned this region with its magnificent and splendid green ornaments. Beauty is scattered everywhere in magnanimous mood. The virgin beauty of Bandarban is found at every step of our advancement. Behind the name of Bandarban there is an overwhelming story. Long ago it was a great natural habitat for monkeys and it was crisscrossed with numerous canals (jhiri). Monkeys used to collet fruits from the forests of the other side of the canals, and cross it. When they used to move in groups, they looked like dams on these jhiris which caught the sight of local Marma Community who termed it as Magchi' where 'Mag' means Monkeys and 'ci' means dam. Gradually it has been changed/transformed in the
local dialect, Bandarban. And with the passage of time it has undergone a phonetic change and now it is Bandarban.
As we reached Bandarban on Aug 17, to my surprise I found it a district totally on the hills where there is no plain land or wherever there is plain land, it is made by the local people levelling down the hill tops. Wherever we had travelled to, we found there different tribes living on the slope of hills in different small cottages. Nowhere there is a large group of living area. The zigzag roads on the hills from one to another, sometimes down the slope or sometimes to the pick made the journey thrilling. Hiring a 'Chander Gari' for two days we vistited several hill tops there.
A view of Bandarban from Bandarban-Thanchi road.
Captured by me.
First of all our driver took us to the Meghla Porjoton Complex, in the contiguous area of the Bandarban hill district council on the gateway of Bandarban. It has an artficial lake at the bottom of this hill, a children park, mini zoo, and a hanging bridge over the lake. But while walking on the top, sometimes it made us thrilled to see the great works of Allah that it is
only possible by Him to keep these sharp straight walls of hills fixed like that.
There is a Golden temple built at the top of a hill. It is regarded as one of the holy sights for the Buddhist pilgrimage. It's totally golden in colour and a building on a lonely hill top from where a large area is seen for the first time with a large gap to observe the loneliness of the hills.
Buddha Dhatu Jadi[3]
Next, we moved to another tourist spot 'Nilachol', situated at Tiger Par. It is near about 2000 ft high, above the sea level and it completely made us feel like touching the blue sky. Even it reminded us again about the greatness of almighty Allah and the intellect that He has given to human beings. From the top of this hill anybody can have a glimpse of Bandarban town and a vast landscape. It was about to be the evening when fluffy white clouds touched us to welcome among them and made the feeling of losing ourselves in the beauty of the evening blueness. The day ended and returning to our resort, we had a fresh rest the next morning, just after the Fajr prayer, we started for Nilgiri Mountain, a mountain about 3500 ft. high and it is situated in Thanchi Upazilla, just 65km away from Bandarban.
Our journey to explore the unexplored beauty was done totally covering ourselves with the blankets of clouds. In the midway to the top, we suddenly saw the name of Allah written in a bunch of clouds. Reaching the top we were once again overwhelmed with the natural beauty. Here we discovered that we were above the clouds. There is an army resort at the top of Nilgiri. The army restaurant there makes and serves food to the armies only. Knowing it my little child who was hungry became crazy and said to me. "Don't they know that you're a teacher of the army's school? Then why won't they let us buy from them?" We stayed about two hours there, took many photographs but as long as we stayed there, we felt like floating in the sky with the clouds.
NILGIRI Bandarban, Bangladesh[4]
We, from Nilgiri mountain moved to the top of the mountain Chimbuk which is 2500 ft high and is considered to be the third highest peak in Bangladesh. From Chimbuk we went to Shoilopropat, one of the most famous and visited water falls of Bangladesh. The purity of this fall touches the hearts. The water is purely
transparent and cool. It's a good source for drinking water of the local people. Here is a tribal market with their handicrafts for the tourists. we had a shopping there and picked up photographs with them. From here we returned to the resort with a heart full of charm, thrill, experience and pride for having such beauty in my country.