Cultural Preservation
The Cultural Preservation project aims to restore the heritage of the century old boat building tradition of Bangladesh by bringing awareness of this technology at home and abroad through a Living Museum of Country Boats. For the last six years, Friendship has been initiating and preserving the oldest crafts of Bengal, the wooden country boats. Over many centuries the country boats of Bengal have evolved to diverse shapes and forms. Until recently the rivers of Bangladesh could be seen busy with thousands of wooden sail boats including Balam, Patham, Malar, Bajra, Panshi, Kosha, and many more, transporting people and goods across the country. But with the emergence of modern diesel powered cheaper steel vessels the country boats faced a great challenge. During the last two decades, the traditional boats have started to disappear in a rapid pace as well as the craftsmen with their skills and techniques that have been passed down from generation to generation for over 3,000 years. As part of the Cultural Preservation project Friendship is focusing on three key areas: With an aim to preserve this unique craft Friendship is building a living museum of country boats, which is the first one of its kind in the subcontinent. Since 2004, carpenters, blacksmiths, rope makers and sail makers have been working at the Living Museum of Traditional Country Boats of Bengal on the banks of the River Dhaleswari, 20 kilometers north of Dhaka. With private donations for financing the construction of several buildings at the museum, including an exhibition area, a model-building workshop, shop and research centre the museum is expected to be opened to the public in 2008. Moreover to increase awareness of the boat building tradition Friendship arranges exhibitions from time to time at home and abroad. Previously Friendship arranged exhibitions on country boats at the Bengal Gallery and the National Museum of Bangladesh.
The naval construction of traditional boats
Exhibition on National Museum
Construction period of boat
Exhibition-BENGAL GALLERY
