[Table of Contents]

[1] Message from Ambassador Horiguchi "About Tourism Promotion--Trip to Mahasthan"

[2] Upcoming Events on Japan-Bangladesh Relations
* Bangladesh-Japan International Art Exchange 2005 (Oct 20-26, Dhaka)

[3] Recent Events on Japan-Bangladesh Relations
* Workshop on Water Resource Management (Dhaka, Oct 3)

[4] Information
* Japan Foundation Application Forms Available on the Web

[5] Relay Essay by Japan Development Scholarship (JDS) Fellow "Development of ICT Sector in Bangladesh"
(Mr. Suman Saha, Lecturer, The University of Asia Pacific, Bangladesh)

[6] Editor's Note

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[1] Message from Ambassador Horiguchi
"About Tourism Promotion--Trip to Mahasthan"
Last weekend, I visited Buddhist ruins in Mahasthan. Because the road from Dhaka through Gazipur to Tangail had long been under construction, it was difficult to go though there. However, at last in April this year, the road construction was completed and was very splendidly done. With this work, the entire road to Jamuna bridge from
Gazipur via Tangail has been constructed with Japanese yen loan. As a Japanese, I am very pleased to see that Japan has been contributing to the nation-building of Bangladesh.

With the completion of the road construction, it took only two hours from Dhaka to Jamuna bridge, and, in addition, reaching to Mahasthan Garh required one and a half more hours from Jamuna bridge, because
not many cars ran on the road since I visited there on Friday.

In Mahasthan, Buddhist ruins are scattered across a vast region. First of all, we caught glimpse of a rampart, which was four meters in height and 1.5 kilometer by one kilometer in length. Although there might have been Hindu, Buddhist, and Islamist architecture inside of the rampart before, only a field extends now.

Next, I visited Bashor Gor (Gokul Mer), which is an elevated hill, often seen in a tourism poster of Mahasthan. I heard that a Buddhist temple was built in the seventh century where a Siva temple had been set up. However, it is difficult to imagine an old construction from ruins that remain at present. A quick protection seems to be necessary to avoid further destruction and decay of this great and ancient relic.

Five to six kilometers away from there is a monastery named Vashu Vihar. When Monk Xuan Zang visited there in the seventh century, 700 priests lived there. The scale was small but the construction is as same as one of Nalanda Buddhist Monastery in India. The sharpness of the edge of the remaining construction made of bricks was impressive.

Because there were few tourists or residents surrounding these ruins, it was wrapped in a complete silence, and my thoughts could correspond to the lives of Buddhist monks who lived more than one thousand years ago.

I visited the museum of Mahasthan at the end of my journey. The guidance said that, although the scale is small, the exhibits in display are more substantial than other museums in the country. However, the exhibits and the explanations are far from comparable. Because of the inadequate lighting at the coin display corner, for instance, I could only see the coins' outlines.

Moreover, the admission fee for foreigners has recently risen to one hundred taka from two taka while one for Bangladeshis, it is kept as two taka. In addition, twenty taka further admission fee is required for the visit of the Gobinda Hindu temple site in front of the museum.

For the tourism promotion of Bangladesh, tourist spots need to be made more attractive first through advertisement of the spots, preservation of resources for tourism like relics, improvement of the explanations of exhibits in museums, publication such as postcards, improvement of lighting, preparation of rest rooms, and improvement of the access roads to the tourist sites.

One of the main purposes of tourism promotion is to improve the image of Bangladesh by attracting more foreign tourists and letting them know the actual situation of Bangladesh. It will not be easy to achieve the purpose if we start by increasing museum's admission fees for foreigners fifty times more than that of Bangladeshi peoplewithout initiating the above improvement measures. Authorities are, therefore, kindly requested to review and direct necessary measures in these regards.

(Past messages from Ambassador Horiguchi)
http://www.bd.emb-japan.go.jp/en/eBulletin/index.html