Bangladesh is one of the world’s most densely populated countries. There are people everywhere, and the great majority had an Indo-Aryan phenotype and profess Islam… Yet, far in the Hills bordering Myanmar, we find what at Last Places we like to describe as an ‘island of resistance’. The Tripura people, a small Animistic and Hindu ethnic group of 60,000 people, clings proudly to its own ways, regardless of who rules the country where they live. The Tripura tribe is divided into several clans. Among them, the Gurpai, Jomatia, Dendak, Tongpai, Gorjong, Khakulu, Gaigra, and Murasing.
Economy
The Tripura live from slash-and-burn farming in the remote Chittagong Hills, in the far East of Bangladesh. They live in small towns both high on the hills, as well as in some isolated valleys.
Location of the Tripura people on the territory of Bangladesh and India
Traditional architecture
Generally, their homes are made of bamboo and built on raised. In this way, they prevent the penetration of moisture and wild animals into their homes.
Traditional architectural style house of a tripura village during ethnographic trip to Bangladesh
Do you want to meet the Tripura people of Bangladesh?
Join the ethno-photographer Aníbal Bueno on his next trip to Bangladesh from 1 to 13 of December 2023 to meet the Tripura people. Click here for more details about the trip.
Meeting with Tripura woman in a traditional village during ethnographic trip to Bangladesh
Traditional aesthetics of the Tripura people of Bangladesh
Tripura women are very fond of ornaments. Some of the traditional Tripura adornments indicate their social and civil status. Both men and women wear silver earrings. Additionally, women adorn their wrists, ankles, neck, nose, and hair with jewelry. In the past, Tripura men also wore ornaments, but due to the political conflict in the area, most of them have abandoned the ornamentation on their bodies, piercing only their ears. Traditional female clothing consists solely of a turban and a loincloth. Some married women wore nothing more than a skirt.
Meeting with a man from the Tripura people during an ethnographic trip to Bangladesh
Religion
Although 90% of the Tripura are Hindus, their religious beliefs are a bit different from the Hindu castes of India. Some practice animal sacrifice as an offering to their traditional gods and goddesses. The older generation believe in the traditional Animistic religion based on the ancestors’ worship.
Meeting with Tripura woman of traditional aesthetics during ethnographic trip to Bangladesh
Challenges of the Tripura people
The Chittagong Hills region has been in conflict for decades, and the Tripura tribe has been affected. The origin of the conflict radiates in the demand for more autonomy by the major tribal groups of the Chittagong Hills region. In the late 1970s, an armed movement began to press the Bengali government. In order to combat the ‘rebellion’, Bengali settlers – mostly landless families from the plains districts – were encouraged to move to the Chittagong Hills with offers of land as part of a counter-insurgency strategy. Thousands of Bengali settlers have moved to the Chittagong Hill Tracts during and after the conflict. Gradually, they have occupied and encroached on tribal land, giving rise to renewed violent clashes.
In 1997, there was a peace agreement between the tribal insurgents and the Bangladeshi government, but the latter had failed to this date to stop the invasion of tribal land by Bengali farmers. Clashes between the Tripura people and Bengali settlers over land use are still unfortunately common.
© Photos by Edith Scharffenberg taken during an ethnographic trip to Bangladesh.
ES