The Bandarban: Villages

The Bandarban is a part of the Chittagong Hill Tracts close to the Bangladeshi borders with India and Burma. We drove up into the hills to the Guide Tours Resort, a wild ride up the hills. The word Bandarban is a combination of "bandar," meaning monkey, and "ban" meaning forest. Unfortunately, there are no bandars in this supposed monkey forest, suprising as the lush landscape is covered with fruiting trees.
We spent our day there with a tour guide named Onik, walking through the villages around the hills. Bandardan the town is a relatively nice place, and the region is full of people who look far more South East Asian than south Asian. We also were able to shop for a full 45 minutes in town without ever running into a beggar. What a relaxing experience! I bought some gifts from local craft makers and it was a much less stressful process than buying anything in Dhaka.

The villages that we toured seemed pretty prosperous. Most of the men were off in the hills harvesting fruit and doing other labor, while the women and children and some of the older residents were about town. The people had some experiences with westerners because there had been missionaries in the region, and one of the villages was a self proclaimed Christian community. All the people we talked to were extremely friendly and seemed to have a certain spark that seems lacking in the city. Even the villages we have seen right outside of Dhaka seem somewhat more wholesome than city life, but these villages had an almost tangible connection to the land and family that was very pleasant to observe. Here are some pictures!

This woman was carrying her child and a ton of metal dishes back up from washing in the river. Her leg strength was quite impressive as she hoisted her load up the narrow dirt path to her village.

Me in the village, my compatriots in the background

Beckley vs. Cow

Some scantily clad children play around new potato crops

Main street in the village... well I guess the only street

The little homies. I ended up taking about 8 pictures of these two because they would crack up at the LCD display of the photograph on my camera.

This is one of my favorite pictures I've taken here. I have been fascinated with the practice of taking pictures of the native people, as I feel a necessity to document my experience and a kind of sickness or unease with the objectification inherent in the act of taking the picture. Here, the child reverses this phenomenon, pantomiming me as I photograph his striking sister. The powder she wears on her face is meant to clear up any blemishes. An intensely beautiful woman, we tried to set her up with our reluctant guide, Onik.