Dhaka's 'Conch Street' under threat | ||||||
Amiya Kumar Sur sits under the faded portrait of his grandfather, holding in his hands the unusual source of his family's wealth for generations - a conch shell. For hundreds of years they have been importing them from Sri Lanka. These gnarled sea shells are then hammered, cut, polished and carved into delicate white bangles. "Every Hindu woman has to wear two of these at the moment of her marriage," Mr Sur explains proudly. "This is the most ancient handicraft in Bangladesh." The same work is done by a dozen families along Shakhari Bazaar, a narrow street in Dhaka's old town, which is named after the bangles. Opposite where Mr Sur sits is his workshop, where most of the cutting is done - in a near-dark atmosphere of dust and dampness. The only thing that has changed here for centuries is that the shells are now sliced by a machine but everything else, including the carving of intricate patterns on the side of the bangles, is done by hand. 'Facing death' Mr Sur's family and the community of Shakhari Bazaar has done well out of this business. Their houses are as old as Dhaka itself - which was founded as a provincial capital 400 years ago.
Above the shops is a maze of courtyards, decorated rooms and temples that made up some of the grandest houses in Mughal and colonial-era Dhaka. But things are now changing and the fate of these buildings and the way of life of the people who live and work in them is uncertain. Mr Sur explained that while Bangladesh's Hindu population is still large - estimated at about 12 million people - its numbers are dwindling and many now prefer to buy cheaper, synthetic bangles which are made in India. Unless Muslims can be persuaded to buy the bangles as well, Mr Sur warns, his industry is "facing death". "The next generation is losing all hope in it," he said. The cost of maintaining their historic homes is also increasing, and the owners face a huge incentive to sell to developers, who pull them down and build low-cost apartment blocks instead. A century ago Dhaka was a town of 200,000 people. It is now the home to 15 million and every day that figure increases. "The population is going up, but our houses are not. Most of them are falling to bits and we can't afford to repair them," Mr Sur said.
"We want to stay here and keep our traditions alive, but we need help." They get none from the government, which also fails to enforce restrictions on the size and construction methods of new buildings. Shakhari Bazaar has survived the Mughal empire, the British Raj, the partition of India and the Pakistani army, which killed many Hindu residents during Bangladesh's independence war in 1971. But one by one its crumbling mansions are now being replaced by overcrowded tenements and the bazaar is becoming another of the city's slums. 'Uphill struggle' "In Dhaka, you won't find any other place where the original inhabitants of a neighbourhood are still living," said Taimur Islam, an architect of Dhaka's Urban Studies Group, which wants to rescue Shakhari Bazaar. "We are not saying there should not be any modern development. But there has to be sustainable conservation," he said. "The old character of the neighbourhood can be preserved, while there can be modern buildings and the old ones are respected."
Unlike its South Asian neighbours and even bombed-out Afghanistan, Bangladesh has no programme of preserving or restoring its historic urban quarters, so Mr Islam admits that his is an uphill struggle. But he hopes he can win over the sceptics in the community by showing them that restoring old buildings can make economic sense - well-built apartment blocks can be constructed behind some of the old facades. The most important houses can be restored. "Restoring a building is labour intensive and we can create more jobs," he said. "Look at this community - it is full of craftsmen we can use. So we are also talking about preserving these original crafts, as well as bringing in tourism. This can all help alleviate poverty. It has been successful elsewhere in the world, it can work here too." | ||||||
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