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Bogra and aroundAug 27, 2008
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The centrepiece of the temple at Paharpur.
A close up of the details on the brickwork of Paharpur.
A family who wanted their photo taken, this time at Mahasthangarth.
I stayed at Bogra and used it as a base to visit two nearby sights of interest, the ruins of the old city of Mahasthangarh and the old buddist monastry of Paharpur.
Mahasthangarh is not much more than paddy fields inside grown over remains of the old city walls, not much to see to be honest.
Paharpur is different, it was once the largest buddist monastry south of the Himalayas (I knew you'd be impressed) and is considered the best preserved archeological sight in Bangladesh. Billboard pictures which line the roads of the country attain to the fact that this is a sight of which Banglasdeshi's are very proud. The ruins are reasonably well preserved and cover a large area consisting of monk's cells enclosing a courtyard with the reamins of a 20 metre high stupa at its centre. In short its worth a visit. My celebrity status as lone foreigner continued throughout the day as I was stared at and received the usual barrage of the same old questions, beats working though.
