State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has called for upholding and nurturing the country’s heritage to ensure balanced development.
“Our rich heritage has enriched Bengali culture. Due to the aesthetics and tradition, Dhaka has repeatedly been the capital of this region. Like Dhaka, every region of this country has a different culture and beauty, which has made Bangladesh rich,” he said at an exhibition titled “Learning from Old Dhaka: Exploring the Future of Living Traditions” on Wednesday.
Nasrul Hamid and French Ambassador to Bangladesh Marie Masdupuy opened the exhibition.
Paying tribute to the language martyrs, he said: “There is an inseparable connection between rivers, life-livelihood, and cities. Dhaka shares such kinship with the Buriganga River. Surrounded by the Buriganga, Dhaka has developed and flourished. The architecture and heritage of Dhaka are integrated and must be collectively preserved. It should not be put at risk under any circumstances.”
At the beginning, the French ambassador paid tribute to the martyrs of the Language Movement marking International Mother Language Day.
Ambassador Masdupuy recalled renowned architect Marina Tabassum who designed the Cultural Centre.
“This exhibition is the result of a yearlong project launched by Alliance Française of Dhaka in cooperation with architecture students coming notably from France (École de la Villette) and Bangladesh (BUET), showcasing the very rich and peculiar history of Puran Dhaka (Old Dhaka) through its architecture and the life and activity around the Buriganga,” she said.
“It is here also that Farashganj is located, the old French merchants’ settlement, and also where the ancestors of the state minister established themselves three hundred years ago," the ambassador said.
She concluded by applauding the two French artists who showed them an extraordinary performance with a group of Buriganga coolies about all the industrial and handicraft landscape in Zinzira.