Kantajew temple is the most beautiful Hindu temple from Bangladesh. It is located in Kantanagar of Dinajpur district. Construction of the temple began in 1704 by the Maharaja Pran Nath and finished in 1722. This temple was built as a Nabaratna temple (which has nine domes or spires on top of it). But during the devastating earthquake of 1897 this temple suffered a lot and lost all its spires. Every inch of the temple is ornate with terracotta. And in current days this is a finest example of the terracotta work from Bangladesh. This Kantajew temple is dedicated to Lord Krishna and his wife Rukmini from Hindu religion. Everyday a lot of devotees visit this temple.
During my visit of Kantajew temple I was amazed by the beauty of it. All the walls and pillars of the temple is covered with numerous terracotta arts. Anyone could take thousands of photo and still that would not cover the whole temple. The images from the temple wall depicts the stories from the Ramayan and Maha Bharat. If you want to know more about the temple you could see it from wikipedia
How to go:
There are two ways to go to the Kantajew temple from the Dinajpur town. One is by taking any local buses, or bus of Panchagarh district from the New bus terminal of Dinajpur town. Just ask the bus driver if you would like to visit the Kantajew temple, and they would drop you at the exact place. The name of the place is Kantanagar. From there you could take some other vehicles and reach the temple directly using roads. The road goes through a typical Bangladeshi village landscape.
Alternate way to go:
Another option is leaving the bus near the Dhepa river ghat. Which is a short distance from the stoppage of Kantanagar. It is a very shallow river but beautiful. You could have a stroll beside the river as an extra. There is a boat that carries from one bank to another. You could take that boat to cross the river. After that it would be around 10-15 minutes of walking through the village. During your walk you would expect to see paddy, wheat, or corn fields depending upon the season.
Find the storyteller:
There were two people around the Kantajew temple, one was Dinesh and another one was Kenu, both of them were capable of telling you the story using the terracotta images from the temple walls.
For more photos of this Kantajew temple please visit the Photo gallery of Dinajpur.
Kantajew temple,
Kantanagar,
District: Dinajpur,
Country: Bangladesh,
GPS coordinate (25°47’25.1″N, 88°40’00.0″E).
Written by Lonely Traveler,
For blog alonelytraveler.com
Sunday, 23rd May 2010
