Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label culture. Show all posts

Saturday, November 3, 2007

West bengal culture history and cusine

HISTORY
Bengal has rich cultural heritage and a glorious past dates back to 3rd century BC. The region has been ruled by Mauryas, Guptas, Palas, the Muslims and finally the British. Bengal is the birth place of many great personalities, philosophers, scientists, patriots, and home to five Nobel laureates – Ronald Ross, Sir C.V. Raman, Rabindranath Tagore, Mother Teresa and Amartya Sen. During British imperialism, this region was divided into two provinces of West Bengal and East Bengal followed the policy of “divide and rule” to curb the rising of national movement in India. Present Bangladesh is the region of East Bengal and West Bengal is one of the 28th states of Indian Union.

GEOGRAPHY
West Bengal is bordered by Nepal and Bangladesh and the states of Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, Sikkim, Assam, and Meghalaya in different directions. From north to south, it stretches from Himalayan Mountain to the Gangetic plain and the Bay of Bengal. The land is mostly plain except the northern region, which comes under the Himalayan mountain range. On the basis of landforms, the state can be divided into the following regions: Darjeeling Himalayan hill region, Terai region, North Bengal plains, Rarh region, Coastal plain, Sunderbans, Western plateau and high lands and Ganges delta.

CULTURE
The rebirth of Indian culture has taken place in this region of West Bengal which added a new chapter in the evolution of Indian history as Bengal Renaissance. This region is the land of Subhash Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Mother Teresa, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy, Jagdish Chandra Basu, Dr. C. V. Raman, Satyendra Nath Basu, U. N. Bhramcharya, Meghnath Saha, G. D. Birla, Girendra Sekhar Basu, P. C. Mahalanabish, Sishir Kumar Mitra, Debendra Mohan Basu, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Saorjini Naidu, Amartya Sen, Saurav Ganguly and many more. The culture of Bengal is deep rooted in its soil and is distinguished by festivals, music, cinema, drama and literature. Festivals in a multidimensional scale are observed in spiritual ecstasy in the state especially during Durga Puja.

CUISINE
Bengalis are fond of Bhaat (rice) and Machher jhol (fish curry). There is a wide range of dishes and cuisines with variety of tastes. Most of the typical Bengali sweets have their origin in traditional household kitchens. The most famous of all Bengali sweet is the rasogolla (a kind of sweet) which is best eaten chilled.

BEACHES
The coastal trip of West Bengal extending from the Gangetic delta land to the border of Orissa offers breathtaking and eye-catching beaches of Digha, Shankarpur, Junput, Bakkhali, Frazergunj and Sagardwip.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Discover Oriental East India


This unique tour combines the two eastern states of Sikkim and West Bengal. Similar in many ways yet so different in their cultural traditions, heritage, people and the environment. This tour reveals aspects of India very often missed while travelling the regular circuits. This journey starts at the north-eastern state of Sikkim (Indian border state to China), tucked away in the foothills of the Himalayas, a place with breathtaking beauty, rich biodiversity and the most splendid views of Mt. Kanchenjunga. We then travel to Lachung, a place very close to the Tibet border. From there we start our southward descent to the state of West Bengal, visiting the famous architectural towns of Murshidabad and Vishnupur and then to Kolkata, the erstwhile capital of the British. From Kolkata we journey to the Sunderbans National Park, the world's largest delta formed by the Ganga (Ganges) and Brahmaputra rivers. At this point you have the option of either ending your journey on the backwaters or travelling further south to visit the temple towns of Bhubaneshwar, Konark and Puri, winding up on the palm-fringed beaches of Puri.