From the mountains to the plains - Sikkim to Bangladesh

Kanchenjunga

Having trudged round Darjeeling to get the permit to enter Sikkim we headed north through the deep cut Teestra valley to Rangpo where we had to register our presence in Sikkim. Sikkim has borders with China, Bhutan and India, the northern Chinese border being particularly sensitive, so our permit did not allow us to visit the more remote northern and eastern areas. We headed first to Gangtok - the capital of Sikkim, which like Darjeeling is perched along the top of mountain ridges at around 2000m. On entering Sikkim it immediately felt more prosperous and ordered than West Bengal with little rubbish, clean pavements and much better control of traffic.

Landslip across road

Yukson Coronation seats

The state is set in the foothills of the Himalaya and contains India's highest mountain, and the third highest peak in the world - Kanchenjunga - which when the air is clear dominates the skyline. A huge amount of work is being carried out to improve the roads, both widening and resurfacing them and a lot of effort is being put into developing tourist sites and services. The roads are a real challenge, they cling to hillsides as they climb up to the towns on the ridges and drop through the valleys 2000m below. To keep easy gradients they inevitably twist up through numerous hairpin bends, and due to the steepness of the hillsides many are quite narrow. Passing through this dynamic landscape they inevitably suffer from landslides, which can sweep away even a newly laid road. It is incredible where they have managed to build roads but there are still communities with no vehicular access. We spent over a week just enjoying the spectacular scenery and visiting some of the Tibetan style monasteries which dot the landscape.

Ralong Monastery butter sculptures

Notable amongst these were Pemayangtsi Monastery located near Rabdentse, the second capital of Sikkim, and the Old and New Ralong Monasteries located with stunning views towards Kanchenjunga. The Ralong monasteries create sculptures from butter which they use to adorn their temples. These are exquisite detailed and decorated carvings from large blocks of butter - quite beautiful.

Kanchenjunga Waterfall

Ralong Monastery

Over the centuries the capital of Sikkim has moved progressively east as a result of invasions by both the Mongols and Nepalis and we managed to visit all four of the historical capitals, the oldest location being where the first ruler of Sikkim was crowned at Yuksom, which is also the closest we got to Kanchenjunga, though we could not see it due to cloud and haze.

Sikkim Landscape

One night at Ravangla we were treated to an evening of crashing thunderstorms and torrential rain, but the reward was clear air the following morning with spectacular views of Kanchenjunga, which we enjoyed to the full over breakfast. By mid morning the cloud had built and obscured the peak, and regularly by late afternoon it would start to rain.
Everywhere we went we were welcomed and people were very friendly wanting to chat and welcome us. One lady took us to visit the local residential school where for the brightest students the Government provides free boarding education.












Rock Crushing alongside road in Bangladesh

We reluctantly left Sikkim and dropped back down to the much hotter lowland. Wanting to visit Kolkata we decided we could head south through Bangladesh - a country we knew little about.

Kantanagar Temple

The first impression is that it is much poorer than India with far fewer cars on the roads. At the border there were hundreds of trucks carrying rock heading through the border, and all along the road south from the border were rock crushing plants. It dawned on us that Bangladesh occupies the flat fertile silty land round the Brahmaputra Delta and therefore has very little rock. From the road everywhere is green as far as the eye can see, with rice in all stages of maturity, and workers scattered through the fields. Interestingly as we passed through communities they we serviced by hundreds of electric powered cyclos and tuk tuks. As we headed south the tuk tuks were powered by electricity, or for the longer distance routes by Compressed Natural Gas.


Kantanagar Temple terracotta frieze

Nayabad Mosque

As we looked up what to see in Bangladesh it became apparent that it has a long and fascinating history. Our first find was the exquisite Hindu Kantanagar Temple, constructed in the early 1700's. It is notable for being completely covered in detailed terracotta tiles depicting life in the 1700's, all in fantastic condition. Just nearby in a very rural village is the tiny Nayabad Mosque, believed to have been built for the architects and builders of the temple.

Somapura Mahavihara

A defaced original terracotta tile

Somapura Mahavihara - was one of the five major Buddhist monasteries and was built between 781 and 821 AD. It is a huge site covering 27 acres and had a colonnaded perimeter with 177 cells for the resident monks surrounding the huge temple. We were able to stay in the grounds camping outside the "Rest House" so were able to spend the evening and following morning exploring the site. One of the archaeologists took us round the site where we could see some of the original terracotta tiles, still in excellent condition, apart from the faces being removed presumably by the invading muslims in 13th century. The temple was only discovered in the early 1900's as it was a jungle covered mound in the flat landscape.

Town walls of 4tc Century BC Mahasthan Garh

Evidence of much older habitation is found at Mahasthan Garh - ruins of a 4 century BC town. To date much of the town's brick defensive walls have been excavated and restored with ongoing excavations taking place at specific locations inside the walls to determine the layout.
As there is no available rock, all the old structures are built from fired bricks - and it interesting that as we travelled south brick kilns became ever more numerous. Bricks have been used for constructing the elevated roads - many only recently surfaced with tarmacadam, bricks are crushed to create aggregate and ground fill, so huge numbers are still produced.

Green Paddy fields with brick works

We eventually reached Dhaka - where the traffic is incredible and the congestion awful, but fortunately arrived on Independence Day, so were spared the worst of it. Dhaka is incredibly vibrant with very lively bazaars much more akin to those found in the Middle East, and hidden amongst the tawdry modern structures are some old gems, from the Mughal period and later colonial buildings. The old Mughal Lalbag Fort is one of the few open spaces in Dhaka. It was never complete but does retain boundary walls and a double layer drainage system as well as a small mosque and tomb of Bibir Mazar. 

Mhugal Lalbag Fort

Armenian Church

Dhaka had a thriving Armenian community until many of them departed at partition in 1947, and then another exodus during the war of independence in 1971. Around 150 families remain and support the beautiful Armenian church constructed in the 1740's.

Old Caravanseri Gateway now in bazaar

Hidden in the bazaar are the remains of two old and large caravanseri, but little remains apart from a couple of the gatehouses.
Bangladesh has been a real surprise, a lot of interesting history and very friendly and helpful people.

 

Dhaka Traffic jam