The secrets of this earth are not for all men to see, but only for those who seek them
Posts tagged Bangladesh
Dhaka National Assembly – Bangladesh
Sep 5th
The opportunity to design the main seat of government in Dhaka, Bangladesh, was a gift for architect Louis Kahn as his final project because it proved to be the chance to fulfill his architectural vision. Form his early admiration of radical visionary R. Buckminster Fuller, Kahn worked through formal geometric layouts to produce architecture full of emotional resonance and with a hankering for ancient world that lifts the austerity of his work.
Construction began in 1961 under the Pakistani government as a seat for the federal administration of West and East Pakistan. However, work was halted by Bangladesh’s Liberation War with Pakistan, which ended in 1975, and when it finally opened in 1982, it was as the home of the National Assembly of Bangladesh. More >
The Indian Subcontinent and the Himalaya
Aug 26th
This region has a distinct identity that transcends the artificiality of political borders. Screened off from the rest of the world by the Himalaya, it rests on a single tectonic plate and its common geography has, over the years, built a shared heritage.
If you were to traverse the Indian subcontinent from north to south, you would start from the world’s highest city, Lhasa in Tibet, and cross the Himalaya Mountain range. These mountains are truly magnificent in their scale: the world’s 14 peaks exceeding 8,000 metres are all located here.
The Indus, the Brahmaputra and the Yangzi Rivers have their origins here, with their combined watershed extending over the subcontinent from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal. No wonder the ancient Indian poet Kalidasa wrote: ‘Linking the oceans on the east and the west, He (the Himalaya) cuts across the earth like a scale kept to measure it.’ More >
Bangladesh
Aug 25th
Shaped by the flow of water and the tide of history, Bangladesh remains one of Asia’s last frontiers of genuine cultural exchange. Bangladesh’s terrain is surprisingly varied. The stark blue of the ocean along the coast contrasts vividly with the tea plantations further north.
The land gets soggy down south: dissolving into the Bay of Bengal via the mangrove forest of the Sundarbans – a backdrop for nomadic peoples, fisherfolk, bandits, otters, monkeys, dolphins and tigers. Talking about the weather in Bangladesh is not polite chitchat so much as a discourse on human endurance. The cold season is hot, the hot season is wet and the wet monsoon season is deadly. More >
Sundarbans National Park – Bangladesh
Aug 9th
Sundarbans National Park faces two serious risks. Rising sea levels due to global warming could floor the park and threaten the tigers, wild birds, and other native species. And the River Ganges, which feeds the delta where the park is located, is so polluted from industrial outflow, raw sewage, human remains, and naturally occurring arsenic that the water is no longer safe for humans or animals to drink. More >
