Rangpur District

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rangpur is a district in Northern Bangladesh. It is a part of the Rajshahi Division.

Contents 1 Geography 2 Subdivisions 3 History 4 Economy 5 Places of interest 6 External links

[edit] Geography

Rangpur District is bordered on the north by Nilphamari District, on the south by Gaibandha District, on the east by Kurigram, and on the west by Dinajpur district. Rangpur town is the district headquarters.

The soil composition is mainly alluvial soil (80%) of the Teesta River basin, and the remaining is barind soil. The temperature ranges from 32 degrees Celsius to 11 degrees Celsius, and the annual rainfall averages 2931 mm. [1]

[edit] Subdivisions

The district has 3 municipalities, namely, Rangpur Main (Sadar), Badarganj, and Kaunia, and eight Upzillas, namely, Badarganj, Gangachara, Kaunia, Rangpur Sadar, Mithapukur, Pirgachha, Pirganj, and Taraganj.

Rangpur town, covering an area of around 43 square kilometers, lies on the bank of the Little Ghaghat River, and was turned into a municipality back in 1869. The population of the Rangpur municipality as of 2006 is 251,699, with 52% male and 48% female, and the literacy rate is 54.6%.

[edit] History

Mansingh, a commander of the Mughal emperor, Akbar, conquered Rangpur in 1575, but it be completely integrated with the Mughal Empire only by 1686. Names of places like Mughalbasa (literal meaning being a locality of the Mughals), and Mughalhat (literal meaning a “local market” organized by the Mughals) bear testimony to the Mughal association and past of Rangpur and its hinterland. Later on, Rangpur passed under the control of “Sarker” of Ghoraghat. During the period of the East India Company, Sannyasi Rebellion took place.

[edit] Economy

[edit] Places of interest

[2] [3]

Just south of the city of Rangpur lies the Tajhat, a former "rajbari" or zamindar's palace. After the end of the British Raj, the building was abandoned and decayed rapidly, although it was used for a few years as a courthouse during the 1980's. In the year 2004, it was largely restored and turned into a museum with ancient inscriptions, art and coins from the area on display.

RDRS (Rangpur and Dinajpur Rural Service) Bangladesh [4], an NGO in northwest Bangladesh, has a large office and guesthouse/convention center in the town of Rangpur.

Former President Ershad, a Rangpur native, was responsible for many additions to Rangpur. He restored the Tajhat rajbari for use as a courthouse in the 1980's. He also donated land for a zoo with a large park in the center of town. The zoo has a variety of animals, mostly in small British-era style cages. The zoo does have a large aviary, a small monkey cage and an endangered Bengal tiger, in addition to a rhinoceros, lions, a leopard, peacocks, alligators, turtles, spotted deer, and many other animals.

Ershad's home can be found in Sinpara, in the center of town.

Just south of the city of Rangpur lies the Tajhat, a former "rajbari" or zamindar's palace. After the end of the British Raj, the building was abandoned and decayed rapidly, although it was used for a few years as a courthouse during the 1980's. In the year 2004, it was largely restored and turned into a museum with ancient inscriptions, art and coins from the area on display.

The Tajhat palace is situated three km on the south-east outskirts of the town of Rangpur. This magnificent edifice with about 76 m frontage, rises two stories and faces east. An imposing broad staircase in the center, paved with imported white marble, leads directly above the portico to the upper storey. The palace is crowned by a ribbed conical dome in the centre of the roof with a tall octagonal neck, partly supported on a series of slender semi-Corinthian columns. The balustrade on either side of the imposing staircase was originally embellished with various sculptures of classical Roman figures in Italian marble, but now these are sadly missing. There are two semi-octagonal projections at each end of the front face and a central projecting porch. The balcony roof above the porch is carried on four graceful Corinthian columns with round shafts, whilst two similar columns on each of the projecting ends of the building support a triangular gable. The palace is laid out in the form on a “U”, with its open end to the west. Beyond the entrance at ground floor level there is a very large hall, measuring more than 18 x 13 meters. A 3 meter wide corridor runs the entire length of the inner block. Two broad wooden staircases provide access to the upper floor. There are about 22 apartments on two floors.

The palace was built by Maharaja Kumar Gopal Lal Roy in the beginning of the 20th century. He was a descendant of a Hindu khatari who emigrated from Punjab. He was a jeweler by profession. It is believed that from the conspicuous appearance of his Taj or jeweled crown his estate derived the name of Tajhat.

From 1984 to 1991 the palace was used as a Rangpur High Court Branch of the Bangladesh Supreme Court. In 1995 the palace was declared as a protected monument by the Department of Archaeology. Recognizing its outstanding architectural value the Government of Bangladesh shifted the Rangpur Museum to the second floor of the palace in 2005. This small museum has several nice examples of Blackstone Hindu carvings in its back rooms.

There is no entrance fee to the grounds, but there is a fee of 50 Taka for foreigners / 5 Tk for Bangladeshis to go into the Palace to see the museum. It has lovely large grounds, with two large symmetrical ponds on either side of an impressively grand tree-lined driveway entrance.

For shopping, there are two large shopping complexes. One is the older "Super Market", a three storied building with a variety of small shops selling everything from soap, shoes and clothes to motorcycles, TVs and fans. There is a more modern building called the Jahaz Company Moore Shopping Complex which has Rangpur's only escalator, though it is seldom in operation. At the top of this building is Rangpur's nicest department store, selling a wide assortment of children's toys, Indian kurtas, shalwar kameezes and saris, and other collectibles.

Karupannya is another store on Station Road which sells Rangpur's famous Satranji handloom carpets, which have earned acclaim for their extraordinary aesthetic appeal. The carpets were made in the village of Nishbetganj and were greatly popular in the Mughal period. In fact, it is believed that emperor Akbar used these carpets to adorn his palace in Delhi.

Karupannya was founded by Shafiqul Alam Selim, who re-established the cottage industry of Satranji at Nishbetganj village. Starting with just five weavers, he has increased to more than 300 weavers today (March 2005) and is now exporting to foreign countries on a small scale. One can purchase a Satranji carpet at the Karupannya showroom in Rangpur or in Banani, Dhaka.

[edit] External links

• Rangpur in Banglapedia

Divisions and Districts of Bangladesh
Barisal Division: Barguna | Barisal | Bhola | Jhalkathi | Patuakhali | Pirojpur
Chittagong Division: Bandarban | Brahmanbaria | Chandpur | Chittagong | Comilla | Cox's Bazar | Feni | Khagrachari | Lakshmipur | Noakhali | Rangamati
Dhaka Division: Dhaka | Faridpur | Gazipur | Gopalganj | Jamalpur | Kishoreganj | Madaripur | Manikganj | Munshiganj | Mymensingh | Narayanganj | Narsingdi | Netrakona | Rajbari | Shariatpur | Sherpur | Tangail
Khulna Division: Bagerhat | Chuadanga | Jessore | Jhenaidah | Khulna | Kushtia | Magura | Meherpur | Narail | Satkhira
Rajshahi Division: Bogra | Dinajpur | Gaibandha | Jaipurhat | Kurigram | Lalmonirhat | Naogaon | Natore | Nawabganj | Nilphamari | Pabna | Panchagarh | Rajshahi | Rangpur | Sirajganj | Thakurgaon
Sylhet Division: Habiganj | Moulvibazar | Sunamganj | Sylhet

Coordinates: 25°36′N 89°15′E