Chakmas, The the largest ethnic group of Bangladesh. They also call themselves Changmas. They are concentrated in the central and northern parts of the chittagong hill tracts where they live amidst several other ethnic groups. Exact population figures are lacking but the most reliable estimates put their number at 140,000 in 1956 and 230,000 in 1981. According to the 1991 population census, there were about 253,000 Chakmas. More than 90 percent of them are concentrated in rangamati and khagrachhari districts. About 100,000 Chakmas also live in India, particularly in the states of Arunachal, Mizoram and Tripura. Small groups have settled in other countries as well. The first written reference to Chakmas of the Chittagong Hill Tracts dates from about 1550 AD when the Portuguese map maker Lavanha indicated on the earliest surviving map of Bengal that Chakmas lived in a settlement on the karnafuli river. Two main theories have been put forward about the earlier history of Chakmas. Both assume that they migrated to their present homeland. The most convincing theory links Chakmas with central Myanmar and arakan, and with groups such as the Sak (Chak, Thek) who live in the Chittagong hills and Arakan. The other theory, for which historical evidence is lacking, assumes that Chakmas migrated to the Chittagong hills from Champaknagar in northern India. In the late eighteenth century, Chakmas were found not only in the Chittagong Hill Tracts but also in other hilly areas of the present-day districts of chittagong and cox’s bazar. It was only after the annexation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts by the British (1860) and the promulgation of rules, which forbade hill agriculture (jhum, shifting cultivation) in Chittagong district that these Chakma cultivators (and other hill cultivators such as the marma) moved east to the Chittagong Hill Tracts. In the precolonial period, the Chittagong Hill Tracts had not been part of any state, although they had long been influenced by the waxing and waning of power centres in Tripura (to the north), Arakan (to the south) and Bengal (to the west). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Mughal empire collected tribute (cotton) from the area through local intermediaries. One of the most prominent of these intermediaries was the Chakma chief residing in an elevated landmass in the Karnafuli river channel. His family had considerable landholdings in the plains of Chittagong, ie, inside Mughal territory, and resided in rangunia. When the British took control of the plains in the mid-eighteenth century, they continued the arrangement, and when they annexed the Chittagong hills a century later, they made the Chakma chief responsible for tax collection in the central region of the new possession. Two other chiefs were made responsible for the southern part (the Bohmong chief) and the northern part (the Mong chief). The Chakma chief, now a colonial grandee endowed with the personal title of raja and some of the trappings of indirect rule, moved to Rangamati, the capital of the new district which the British named Chittagong Hill Tracts. The colonial tax system also gave new powers to old functionaries at the local level (talukdar, dewan, khisa) which came to form the Chakma gentry. The Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulation of 1900 formalised this system and also stressed the fact that the area, though administered from calcutta, was not a regular part of Bengal. Its administrative system, land rights, and closure to outside settlers all set it apart from the rest of Bengal. This status was reconfirmed in the 1930s, when the region was declared an excluded area under the Government of India Act. After decolonisation (1947), the Chittagong Hill Tracts were incorporated into East Pakistan and later (1971) Bangladesh. The special administrative status of the Chittagong Hill Tracts was continued, and the Regulation of 1900 was never clearly rescinded, despite piecemeal mutations. For this reason, the office of the Chakma (and Bohmong and Mong) chief survives till today. In 1906, a hydroelectric project was proposed to be built, using the flow of the water in the Karnafuli river. But it was not until the 1950s that the plan took shape and a large hydroelectric project was commissioned at kaptai, a riverside village close to Rangamati. When the Kaptai dam was completed in 1960, a big lake formed in the Karnafuli valley, flooding many villages and leading to the great exodus (or Bara Parang, as the Chakmas call it). About 100,000 people are thought to have fled the waters, most of them Chakmas. Many settled elsewhere in the district, including reserved forest areas, but in 1964, tens of thousands sought refuge in India. Chakmas felt that their grievances were not taken seriously by the authorities, first in Pakistan and then in Bangladesh. This led to an armed conflict between the PCJSS (Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti, or United People’s Party of the Chittagong Hill Tracts) founded in 1972, and the Bangladesh armed forces. The PCJSS, led mainly by Chakmas, signed a peace agreement with the Bangladesh government in 1997. Traditionally, the Chakma lifestyle was closely linked with hill agriculture or shifting cultivation (jum in Chakma and jhum in Bengali). Living in settled villages, they would cultivate plots on surrounding hills for some years, then leave them fallow to recuperate naturally. Chakmas also cultivated land in river valleys. They had a well-developed system of land rights, which differed sharply from those in the plains (see land tenure). According to early observers, the living standard of cultivators in the Chittagong hills was relatively high. rice, cotton and vegetables were important crops. The bamboo was essential as building material. The bamboo had so many other uses that the Chakma lifestyle has been described as a ‘bamboo civilisation’. In the colonial period, social differentiation grew as an elite developed, basing its lifestyle on a share of the government tax and on educational achievements. In the twentieth century, population growth made hill cultivation more problematic mainly because fallow periods had to be shortened – and more Chakmas had to find non-agricultural jobs. Their problem was intensified by the government policy of transmigration. From the late 1970s, hundreds of thousands of poor Bengali lowland cultivators were brought to the Chittagong hills under military protection. Land scarcity increased sharply, and Chakmas (and other hill people) saw their lifestyle threatened further. Many were forced into low-income wage labour (e.g. on new rubber plantations); over 50,000 fled their country and lived on doles in refugee camps in Tripura (India) from 1986 till their repatriation in 1998.Chakmas distinguish themselves from surrounding groups by their language. Although there are indications that Chakmas used to speak a Tibeto-Burman language, their present language is Indo-European. It is closely related in structure to Chittagonian Bengali from which it differs by a distinct vocabulary. Most Chakmas are bilingual and speak Chakma and Bengali; many know other regional languages as well. The Chakma language has its own script, although today this is not commonly used and Chakma is now usually written in Bengali letters. Chakma literature runs from the oral traditions of the gengkhuli singers through literary periodicals (the first of which was Goirika started in 1936) to modern poetry. Another modern art form in which Chakmas made their mark is painting. The vast majority of Chakmas are Buddhists, and they form the largest Buddhist population in Bangladesh. Integrated in their Buddhist practice are older religious elements, such as worship of the powers of nature. One of their annual highlights is the Bizu festival held in Chaitra, the last month of the Bengali year. Culturally, the Chakmas are in many ways more Southeast Asian than South Asian. They know neither the dietary restrictions nor the strict gender segregation of their Bengali neighbours.

Jamdani an ancient fine muslin cloth with geometric or floral designs. Although jamdani usually means sari, there are jamdani scarves, kurtas, turbans, skirts, handkerchiefs, screens and tablecloths as well. In the 17th century, dresses were also made of jamdani fabric. Towards the end of the Mughal Empire, a special type of jamdani cloth used to be made for the Nepalese regional dress ‘ranga’. The origin of the word jamdani is uncertain. One popular belief is that it came from the Persian words ‘jama’, which means cloth and ‘dana’, which means buti or diapering. Jamdani therefore could mean diapered cloth. It is probable that Muslims introduced jamdani weaving and the industry was their monopoly for long. The earliest mention of the origin of jamdani and its development as an industry is found in Kautilya’s book of economics (about 300 AD) where it is stated that this fine cloth used to be made in Bengal and pundra. Its mention is also found in the book of Periplus of the Eritrean Sea and in the accounts of Arab, Chinese and Italian travelers and traders. Four kinds of fine cloth used to be made in Bengal and Pundra in those days, viz khouma, dukul, pattrorna and karpasi. From various historical accounts, folklore and slokas, it may be assumed that very fine fabrics were available in Bengal as far back as the first decade before Christ. Cotton fabrics like dukul and muslin did not develop in a day. Dukul textile appears to have evolved into muslin. Jamdani designs and muslin developed simultaneously. The fine fabric that used to be made at Mosul in Iraq was called mosuli or mosulin. In his 9th century book Sril Silat-ut-Tawarikh the Arab geographer Solaiman mentions the fine fabric produced in a state called Rumy, which according to many, is the old name of the territory now known as Bangladesh. In the 14th century, ibn batuta profusely praised the quality of cotton textiles of sonargaon. Towards the end of the 16th century the English traveler ralph fitch and historian Abul Fazl also praised the muslin made at Sonargaon. The art of making jamdani designs on fine fabric reached its zenith during Mughal rule. There were handlooms in almost all villages of dhaka district. Dhaka, Sonargaon, Dhamrai, Titabari, Jangalbari and Bajitpur were famous for making superior quality jamdani and muslin. Traders from Europe, Iran, Armenia, as well as Mughal-Pathan traders used to deal in these fabrics. The Mughal Emperor, the Nawab of Bengal and other aristocrats used to engage agents at Dhaka to buy high quality muslin and jamdani for their masters’ use. The golden age of Dhaka muslin began with Mughal rule. Since then the demand for jamdani and muslin fabrics at home and abroad grew and this prompted further improvement in their manufacture. According to 18th century documents of the east india company, a high official of the company was posted at Dhaka to buy mulmul khas and sarkar-i-ali. He had the designation of Daroga-i-mulmul. Every weaving factory had an office, which maintained records of the best weavers and other exports. Weavers had no fixed salary. They used to be paid the market value of the jamdani or muslin they produced. It was the duty of the Daroga to keep a sharp eye at every stage of production. Mulmul khas worth about Re. 100,000 collected from Dhaka, Sonargaon and Jangalbari used to be sent to the Mughal court every year. According to a 1747 account of muslin export, fabrics worth Re 550,000 were bought for the Emperor of Delhi, the Nawab of Bengal and the famous trader jagat sheth. The same year European traders and companies bought muslin worth Re 950,000. Towards the end of the 18th century, the export of muslin suffered a decline. After the English gained diwani in Bengal in 1765, Company agents resorted to oppressing the weavers for their own gains. They used to dictate prices. If weavers refused to sell their cloth at a lower price they were subjected to repression. To stop this repression the East India Company started buying the textiles directly from the weavers.According to James Wise, Dhaka muslin worth Re 5 million was exported to England in 1787. James Taylor put the figure at Re 3 million. In 1807, the export came down to Re 850,000 and the export completely stopped in 1817. Thereafter muslin used to go to Europe as personal imports. According to an account from the middle of the 19th century, white muslin with floral jamdani designs costing Re 50,000 was used by the rulers and nawabs of Delhi, Lucknow, Nepal and Murshidabad. There were a number of factors behind the decline of the jamdani and muslin industry in the middle of the 19th century. Among these were the use of machinery in the English textile industry, import of cheaper yarns from England and lack of patronage from the Mughal Emperors and the aristocracy. After the Partition of Bengal in 1947, official patronage was extended to the jamdani industry. After the liberation of Bangladesh, a jamdani village was established at Demra near Dhaka to provide financial support to weavers. Jamdani weavers of other areas, however, suffer from lack of patronage and support of their labour and expertise. The silent looms of village Madhurapur in bajitpur upazila of kishoreganj district speak volumes about the decline of this industry. This village was once famous for producing jamdani cloth and fancy textiles with yarn of 100/300 counts. Another famous village Jangalbari in the same district has the same story to tell. Manufacturing technique The fineness of muslin cloth used to depend usually on the art of making yarns. The most appropriate time for making yarns was early morning as the air then carried the highest moisture. For making yarns weavers needed taku, a bamboo basket, a shell and a stone cup. They used popcorn, rice or barley for starch. Before making jamdani designs they used to dye their yarn and starch it. For dye they used flowers and leaves of creepers. For quality jamdani they used yarn of 200 to 250 counts. These days weavers buy fine yarn from the market and use chemical dyes instead of herbal dyes. For making jamdani two weavers sit side by side at a loom to work on the delicate designs. Jamdani designs are made while the fabric is still on the loom. Coarse yarns are used for designs to make the motifs rise above the fabric. Originally, the motifs used to be made on gray fabric. Later on fabrics of other colours were also used. In the 1960s, jamdani work on red fabric became very popular. The Victoria and Albert Museum of London has a fine collection of jamdani with work in white on white fabric. Varieties of jamdani work The main peculiarity of jamdani work is the geometric design. The expert weavers do not need to draw the design on paper. They do it from their memory. Jamdanis have different names according to their design. For instance, panna hajar, dubli jal, butidar, tersa, jalar, duria, charkona, mayur pyanch, kalmilata, puilata, kachupata, katihar, kalka pad, angurlata, sandesh pad, prajapati pad, durba pad shaplaful, baghnali, juibuti, shal pad, chandra pad, chandrahar, hansa, jhumka, kauar thyanga pad chalta pad, inchi pad, bilai adakul naksha, kachupata pad, badghat pad, karlapad, gila pad, kalasful, murali jal, kachi pad, mihin pad, kankra pad, shamukbuti, prajapati buti, belpata pad, jabaful and badur pakhi pad. Present day jamdani saris have on their ground designs of rose, jasmine, lotus, bunch of bananas, bunch of ginger and sago. Efforts are underway to revive traditional jamdani designs. A jamdani with small flowers diapered on the fabric is known as butidar. If these flowers are arranged in reclined position it is called tersa jamdani. It is not necessary that these designs are made of flowers only. There can be designs with peacocks and leaves of creepers. If such designs cover the entire field of the sari it is called jalar naksha. If the field is covered with rows of flowers it is known as fulwar jamdani. Duria jamdani has designs of spots all over. Belwari jamdani with colourful golden borders used to be made during the Mughal period, especially for the women of the inner court. Decline of jamdani craft For a long time the Mughals used to regulate the production of expensive jamdani. The Daroga of the mulmul khas factory in Dhaka used to engage weavers, who were paid wages in advance. Increased demands for jamdani weavers caused a rise in their wage and subsequently, the prices of jamdani too. Most expansive jamdani exclusively for the royalties were produced in royal karkhana (factory). The aristocratic people also engaged expensive karigar (craftsman) for manufacturing jamdani. Expensive Jamdani had a world market too. Asian and European royalties regularly put up orders for Dhakai Jamdani through various companies. The production of expensive jamdani suffered set back in the early 19th century when cheaper machine-made jamdani began to capture the world market for jamdani. However, the long tradition of jamdani craftsmanship is still alive. At present, a major problem of the industry is that the weavers do not get adequate wages for their labour. A good piece of jamdani sari needs the labour of one to two months and the wage paid to the weavers does not compensate for their labour. The producers often do not have direct access to sari markets and because of their dependence on the middlemen, who often form informal cartels, they are deprived of their share of profit. Sometimes, the producers fail to recover the costs. Many organisations now patronise jamdani industry and this is helping the production of superior quality jamdani. Some jamdani saris now sell for up to Tk 10,000 a piece. Sometime in the 1990s, the bangladesh national museum bought a jamdani sari with designs of bunches of grapes and grape leaves for Tk 35,000. The common people cannot afford to buy quality jamdani saris because of their high price.

Nakshi Kantha embroidered quilt said to be indigenous to Bangladesh. The term nakshi kantha, popularly used in Bangladesh, is found even in medieval literature. The name nakshi kantha became particularly popular among literate people after the publicaton of jasimuddin’s poem Naksi Kanthar Math (1929). In west bengal, all kanthas, both plain and embroidered, are referred to as kantha. In East Bengal dialects the kantha is also variously referred to as kheta or kentha. In Bihar and parts of West Bengal, the kantha is also known as sujni. Made from old cloth, discarded saris, dhotis, and lungis, kanthas range from utilitarian quilts to exquisitely embroidered heirlooms. Depending on the thickness required, three to seven saris are layered and quilted with the simple running stitch, which typically produces a rippled effect. Traditionally, thread drawn from coloured sari borders would be used to embroider motifs or border patterns imitative of sari borders. At present, embroidery skeins are used for motifs and border patterns. Yarn used for weaving is also used for kantha embroidery, particularly in the Rajshahi-Chapai Nawabganj area where the quilting is heavy. Kanthas serve primarily as bed pallets and as light wraps. Small kanthas are used as swaddling clothes for babies. Depending on their size and use, kanthas range from lep kanthas (winter quilts) and sujni kanthas (spreads and coverlets) to one-foot square rumal (handkerchief) kanthas. Other kantha articles include the asan (a spread for sitting), the bastani or gatri (a wrapper for clothes and other valuables), the arshilata (a wrap for mirrors or toilet articles), the dastarkhan (a spread laid out on the floor for placing food items and plates for dining purposes), the gilaf (an envelope-shaped kantha to cover the quran), and the jainamaz (prayer rug). Most kanthas are utilitarian, with the running stitch being used to hold the layers of cloth together. A large number of kanthas, however, show ingenious use of the running stitch for working motifs and border patterns. Some 19th-century kanthas, for example, have vivid scenes drawn from contemporary life or myths and legends, all worked with different forms of the running stitch. Manipulations of the simple running stitch create ripples, expanses of colour, pointillistic designs, and textures that appear woven rather than stitched. The running stitch also has two particular forms, called the chatai or pati (mat) stitch and the kaitya (bending) stitch, which  are used either for motifs or for border patterns. Occasionally, by varying the length of the stitches taken, the running stitch can replicate woven sari border patterns. Kanthas exemplify thrift, as pieces of old cloth are put together to make something new. However, old cloth also has a magical purpose, as it is believed to ward off the evil eye. The kantha made of old cloth is thus supposed to keep its user safe from harm. Kantha motifs, many of them common to the alpana, also have a magical purpose and reflect both the desire of the needlewoman for happiness, prosperity, marriage, and fertility as well as wish-fulfillment.Despite their variety, most kanthas tend to follow a basic pattern, the focal point being a central lotus motif with concentric circles of undulating vines or sari border patterns. In the four corners of the kantha, or in the four corners of the central square, tree-of-life motifs or kalka are embroidered pointing towards the central lotus motif. The empty spaces between the central and corner motifs are filled with motifs drawn from nature and the homestead or with scenes from real life or legends. Apart from floral motifs, recurrent motifs are the curvilinear swastika, kitchen utensils, ornaments, elephants, tigers, horses, peacocks, boats, palanquins, and the rath, the chariot of jagannath. Scenes from Hindu mythology juxtapose secular scenes of dancing, hunting, and boating. The areas left without motifs or scenes are quilted with the rippling kantha stitch. Other types of kanthas include the pad tola kantha, which is embroidered entirely with sari border patterns, and the lohori or lohira kantha, in which thick yarn is used for close pattern darning. In the most intricate of pad tola kanthas, there is no space between the concentric border patterns so that the entire kantha seems a piece of woven cloth. While most kanthas are the work of illiterate women, many contain proverbs, blessings, and even captions of motifs and scenes in Bangla lettering. Thus, in one kantha, the kantha maker blesses her son-in-law: Sukhe thako (Be happy). Some kanthas are autographed, either with the names of the women who made them or indicating the relationship the kantha maker bore to the person for whom the kantha was intended. A few kanthas are inscribed with the names of the persons for whom they were made. A kantha in the Gurusaday Museum, Thakurpukur, West Bengal, for example, notes that it was made by Manadasundari for her father with her own hands. Another faridpur kantha, which contains scenes of the krishna legend, has the caption Bastraharan (the garment theft) under a scene of nude women sitting on a tree. While the utilitarian kantha never ceased to be made, political upheavals, the availability of manufactured articles, and changing tastes led to a decline in richly embroidered kanthas in the early decades of the twentieth century. In recent years the interest in ethnic arts and crafts has encouraged a kantha revival in both Bangladesh and West Bengal.

Rakhain, The a small tribe of arakan origin belonging  to the Bhotbarmi community of the Mongoloids. Many consider that Rakhains and their neighbours, marmas are in fact, the same tribe. The skull of Rakhains is round, their nose is flat, they have black hair, they are usually short in height, and their complexion is light brown. A section of Rakhains started living in ramu and its adjacent areas in chittagong hill tracts in the fifteenth century. In the eighteenth century, many Rakhain people migrated from their homeland in Arakan because of political turmoil and they gradually settled in different areas of Chittagong Hill Tracts and patuakhali. There were 4,049 Rakhains in the Patuakhali region in 1872. The number increased to 16,394 in 1951, but reduced to 3,713 in 1979. The census of 1991 recorded the number of Rakhain population in Bangladesh at about 7,000. More than eighty per cent of them lived in Ramu, cox’s bazar, Bandarban, Manikchhari and Teknaf. Though Buddhists by religious faith, Rakhains, like other tribes and sub-tribes, believe in superstitions, magic and supernatural powers. They lead very simple lives. The birth anniversary of Gautam buddha is one of their major religious ceremonies. They observe the spring festival and the Baishakhi, maghi purnima and prabarana purnima. ‘Sundrey’ is their greatest community festival and is observed for three days on the occasion of Chaitra Sankranti.Everybody takes part in this festival. Young boys and girls sing songs and perform dances in groups. The main profession of Rakhains is farming. They also weave and make salt and molasses. Both males and females take part in agricultural work. But women take the leading role in livestock rearing and poultry. Some Rakhains are involved in business and a few of them teach. Their diet includes rice, fish, pulses and vegetables. Pork and dried fish are favourite foods. They serve decorated pithas (cakes) and sweet rice porridge on ceremonial occasion. The common dress of Rakhain men is the lungi and fatua while the women wear embroidered lungis and blouses and also various types of ornaments on their bodies and flowers on their heads. Marriage is a religious and social obligation in Rakhain society. Generally marriages are arranged by guardians, but nowadays, love marriages are also recognised. dowry is not accepted among Rakhains. Though the father is the formal head of the family, both male and female members have equal rights. Sons and daughters inherit parental property in equal proportion. The language of Rakhains belongs to the Bhotbarmi group of languages. Rakhain children start their education at Buddhist Patshalas (primary school) or khyangs (monastery). They receive both religious and linguistic education there. The rate of literacy in the Rakhain community is very high and some of them are highly educated. Rakhains burn the bodies after death and bury the remains. The shraddha ceremony for the dead person is held after seven days from death.