Beautiful Bangladesh

Paharpur -- The Buddhists’ Vihara

Posted by : Subrato Saha Thursday, March 21, 2013

One of the most beautiful places in Bangladesh is Paharpur Vihara. It is also called as Sompapur Mavihara. It is situated in Naogaon. The second king of Pala family, Dharmapala built this Vihara at

the last decade of eight century. Paharpur Vihara, that was a Vihara for Buddhists, was recognized as World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985.

By the name of this place “Paharpur”, you may think that this place is famous for many of hill. But your wrong thinking will be removed when you know that this place is famous for “Vihara”. Paharpur Vihara may be a model for international tourists, because it is one of the most important archeological site and ancient symbol in Bangladesh.

When you enter into the Vihara through a big door, you can see a big hall room. There are also two small hall rooms beside that big one. These hall rooms were used for higher education on that ancient period. At that time there was fifty Vihara on that area and Somapura is one of them. There were 177 rooms line by line in this Vihara that can be seen now. Buddhists and students were in these rooms. The main attraction of Somapura Vihara is the central temple that was looked like Piramid. The main temple is in the centre of the Vihara as the ruinous part. It was thirty miters tall, but now it is only twenty one miters. On that time people thought that it was only one of tallest temple in this country. Here you can see thousands of terracotta on the wall of the temple that increases the beauty of the Vihara. There are two thousands terracotta in this Vihara. After visiting Vihara and temple, you can visit the museum where there are many ancient symbols.