Things to do
Not a checklist of sights, but six specific things you can really only do here — a swimming tiger, a glass of layered tea, a forest you paddle through, and craft traditions the world has chosen to protect.
The world's largest mangrove — and the one place a tiger might cross open water.
The Sundarbans is the world's largest mangrove forest and the last wild home of the Bengal tiger, a cat known to swim between islands across the tidal channels. Multi-day boat safaris set out from Khulna and Mongla, and forest department permits are required to enter.
Seven distinct bands of tea, held apart by density in a single glass.
In Srimangal, in the tea hills near Sylhet, a local tea-stall owner invented a now-famous specialty: tea poured in distinct visible layers, each of a different density and flavour, in one glass. The technique has become a signature of the town.
Bangladesh's only freshwater swamp forest, explored over its drowned canopy.
Ratargul, near Sylhet in Gowainghat, is Bangladesh's only freshwater swamp forest. Through the monsoon — roughly May to October — the forest floor floods under 20 to 30 feet of water, and local boatmen guide visitors by small wooden canoe among the submerged trees.
Vivid folk-art panels, now UNESCO-listed, still painted entirely by hand.
Dhaka's hand-painted rickshaws, with their vivid folk-art panels of movie stars, flowers, and rural scenes, were inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in December 2023 — Bangladesh's fifth such listing. Workshops around the city still paint them entirely by hand.
A centuries-old muslin weave so fine a single sari can take months.
Jamdani weaving, a centuries-old muslin technique from the area around Dhaka, is inscribed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list. On a traditional loom, a single fine Jamdani sari can take a weaver months to complete.
Giant papier-mâché masks and effigies carried through the streets for the new year.
Mongol Shobhajatra, the procession held in Dhaka for Pohela Boishakh — Bengali New Year, on April 14 — fills the streets with large papier-mâché masks and effigies. It, too, is on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list.
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