Time Travel in Dhaka: A Day at the Bangladesh National Museum

I hope all of my friends are happy and well. By God grace, I am also well and happy. Today I am going to share with you all a memorable day I spent at Bangladesh National Museum .

One day, I was returning from college, thinking that I would visit the Bangladesh National Museum today. I visited this museum many years ago. So I took a bus from Science Lab to Shahbagh. After that, I bought the ticket from the museum gate and went inside. The ticket price was 40 Taka.

Bangladesh National Museum is the country's national museum located in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The museum is near the Shahbagh. In the museum's front yard, there were many flowering plants and a collection of Aeroplanes and Cannons. There was a food corner on the 1st floor.

The gallery starts from the 2nd floor. So I went up the stairs. The Departments of Artifacts of the National Museum are History and Classical Art, Ethnology and Decorative Arts, Contemporary Art and World Civilization, Natural History Department, and Conservation Laboratory. There is also a public education department. About 5 thousand collected artefacts are arranged for public viewing in 45 exhibition rooms.

The Natural History Department has been one of the most important departments of the Dhaka Museum since its inception. This department has 10 exhibition rooms, where the natural heritage of Bangladesh is presented through various artefacts and dioramas.

The Department of History and Classical Art is the largest department of the National Museum. There are 11 galleries under this category. Coins are the most numerous of the artefacts in this category. About 53,000 coins of ancient and medieval and British period are preserved in this department. Kushan, Gupta, and Mainamati gold coins and gold and silver coins of the Sultanate and Mughal periods are valuable historical relics of this department. The main attraction of the National Museum is the ancient Hindu-Buddhist sculptures.

The history of the Bengali nation's freedom struggle from 1947 to 1971 is presented in 3 galleries on the third floor. These galleries include photographs and documents of the language movement, large-scale photographs of the 7th March speech, posters of the liberation war, poignant photographs of refugee camps and massacres, weapons of the liberation war, surrender of arms and sacrifice of the occupying forces, bearing witness to the glorious historical rise of a brave nation.

Department of Ethnography and Decorative Arts The Department of Ethnology has 16 galleries where the social and cultural lifestyle of the Bengali community are presented. Among the artefacts preserved in the collection of this department are the artefacts related to the religious and cultural norms and customs of various ethnic groups and social professionals, goods used in daily life, weapons, woodwork, handicrafts, etc. Spectacular artefacts such as ornate and elaborately carved cots, palanquins, wooden fences, furniture and carvings are a source of delight and curiosity for visitors to the museum.

Several historical artefacts are also presented in the gallery of this department, among which the swords of Nawab Sirajuddaula and Tipu Sultan, Sirajuddaula's carpet, Shershah and Isa Khar cannons, Akbar's nagara or war mask and armour etc., are presented.

Department of Contemporary Art and World Civilization This department has 7 galleries where domestic and foreign contemporary artworks and examples of world culture are presented. These art galleries are decorated with the works of eminent artists of the country.

The World Civilization Gallery is organized on the 4th floor of the National Museum. However, there are no traces of ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indus, Greek, Roman, or Persian civilizations here. Also, on the museum's fourth floor, there are some exciting corners based on foreign culture. These corners include the Iranian corner, Switzerland corner, Korean corner, Chinese corner, etc.

Conservation Laboratory In 1975, the Dhaka Museum Authority initiated establishing a conservation laboratory with a grant from the Ford Foundation. After the National Museum was established, the conservation laboratory was also shifted to the present building of the National Museum.

It takes a lot of time to explore this entire museum. Because there are many galleries inside it. You can also visit this museum. You can know about many new information.

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