Geographically and Historically the Chittagong Hill Tracts was ethnic minority (tribal) people region.

Chittagong Hill- 
Tracts

Chittagong Hill Tracts//

Chittagong Hill Tracts the only extensive hill area in Bangladesh lies in southeastern part of the country bordering Myanmar on the southeast, the Indian state of tripura on the north, Mizoram on the east and chittagong district on the west. The area of the Chittagong Hill Tracts is about 13,184 sq km, which is approximately one-tenth of the total area of Bangladesh. This region was recorded in the first known map of Bengal, dated about 1550. However, long before in the year 953 a king
of Arakan occupied the present districts of Chittagong Hill Tracts and Chittagong. Later in 1240, King of Tripura occupied this region. The Mughals controlled the area from 1666 to 1760. In 1760 the area was ceded to east india company. The British occupied the Chittagong Hill Tracts in 1860 and made it a part of British India. They named it Chittagong Hill Tracts. The British saw the Hill Tracts as an extension of the Chittagong district. The hills to the south became the 'Arakan Hill Tracts' and those to the north 'Hill Tippera'. Administratively, they brought the Chittagong Hill Tracts under the Province of Bengal. The Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulation of 1900, instituted a local system of tax collection with the headmen and chiefs at the apex. The establishment of Pakistan in 1947, the Chittagong Hill Tracts came under the jurisdiction of Pakistan. After the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, it came under the jurisdiction of Bangladesh and entered into a period of remarkable changes and development. During the early eighties as part of the countrywide administrative reforms the Chittagong Hill Tracts was divided into three individual districts.
The Chittagong Hill Tracts  in the south-eastern part of Bangladesh comprises a total area of 5,093 sq. miles  encompassing three hill districts: Rangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarban. It shares borders with Myanmar on the south and southeast, India on the north and northeast, and the Chittagong district of Bangladesh on the west. It is different in georgaphical features, agricultural practices, and soil conditions from the rest of the country due to its mountainous landscape. Chittagong Hill Tracts is located between 21°-40′ degrees and 23°-47′ degrees north latitude and 91°-40′ degrees and 92°-42′ degrees east longitude. It is a unique territory with marked socio-economical and cultural differences from the rest of Bangladesh.

 

Chittagong Hill Tracts is one of the most diverse regions in the country. Historically, Chittagong Hill Tracts  has been the home to eleven indigenous ethnic groups. They are the Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Tanchangya, Mro, Lushai, Khumi, Chak, Khiyang, Bawm, and Pangkhua. Besides, a very small number of descendents of Assames, Gorkha and Santal also live there. There are also Bengali people in Chittagong Hill Tracts. The indigenous Jumma people are distinct from the majority Bengali people of Bangladesh in respect of race, language, culture, heritage, religion, political history, and economy.

 

Chittagong Hill Tracts area covers about one-tenth of the total surface of the country. the density of population is the lowest in the country. However, if one takes into account the georgaphy of Chittagong Hill Tracts and compare it with the flat land pattern of the rest of the country, then Chittagong Hill Tracts comes out as the most populated area in Bangladesh. The 2001 census and economic statistics indicate that the income per capita of the Chittagong Hill Tracts is the lowest of Bangladesh, 40% lower than the national average.

The amount of land for plough cultivation of this region is only 3.1% i.e. 76,466 acres. If the indigenous hill men and permanent Bengali residents are counted as 900.000, then the per capita availability of land in Chittagong Hill Tracts stands only at 0.08 acre against approximately 0.20 acre of land per capita at the national level.

One of the most common and suitable forms of cultivation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts is Jum cultivation. Besides the Jums, plough cultivation is also practiced by the indigenous people in the plain lands available, mostly in the river valleys. As a result, the people of Chittagong Hill Tracts  used to be self-sufficient in food and other daily necessities.

The construction of the Kaptai Dam in the early 1960s worsened the already land crisis in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. As a result of the Dam, an artificial reservoir  was created, submerging 54,000 acres or 40% of the most fertile plough lands of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The net effect was further contraction of per capita availability of agricultural land.

In addition, more than 400.000 Bengali Muslims were transferred into Chittagong Hill Tracts from plain land without prior and informed consent from Chittagong Hill Tracts people. They were settled down on the land of Jumma people. As no cultivable land was vacant for settlement, the settlers started to forcibly occupy the land of Jumma people. With the aim to uproot the Jumma people from their ancestral land, a long series of massacres and genocide were perpetrated by the Bengali settlers with direct help from military forces. Thousands of Jumma people were ousted from their own homes. The livelihood and economic backbone of the Jumma people were completely broken down.

 

Before colonization, the indigenous Jumma people of Chittagong Hill Tracts were independent. There had been no external interference by any outside power in the affairs of the Chittagong Hill Tracts until 1787, when an agreement was signed with the British, who started colonizing the area in 1860. From 1787 to 1860, the British government did not intervene in the internal administration of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, then from 1860 to 1900 it administered Chittagong Hill Tracts through a set of laws promulgated from time to time. For the maintenance of discipline among the police personnel in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Frontier Police Regulation III of 1881 was promulgated on the 7 December 1881 and the Chittagong Hill Tracts Police Force was raised with indigenous Jumma people. In the interest of good governance of Chittagong Hill Tracts, in 1900 the British government enacted the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulation 1 of 1900 and declared it as an Excluded Area in order to protect the Jumma people from economic exploitation by non-indigenous Bengali people, and to preserve their traditional socio-cultural and political institutions based on customary laws and communal ownership of land.

In 1950, implementing its brazen designs violating the principles and spirit of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulation of 1900, the government of Pakistan started a Bengali Muslim settlement program which continued until 1966. The government enacted the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulation in 1958 in order to grab the Jumma people’s ancestral lands. Moreover, the government snatched away the rights and privileges of the Jumma people by cancelling the Excluded Area status of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in 1963. In 1960, in order to carry out its plan and break down the economic backbone of the Jumma people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the name of so-called industrial development, the Pakistani government built the Kaptai hydro-electric dam on the Karnaphuli river in the heartland of the indigenous Jumma people.

When the democratic movement to safeguard the national existence of the Jumma people was negotiated by the government with repressive measures through the civil and police administrations, including through militarization with the construction of three Army cantonments, it forced Manabendra Narayan Larma, then MP and hero of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Jumma movement, to call for an armed struggle. An armed wing of PCJSS was formed under the name Shanti Bahini. Since 1979, the Government of Bangladesh has undertaken a drastic program to settle the Bengali population from other districts of Bangladesh to Chittagong Hill Tracts so they would outnumber the Jumma people, and to use them as human shields for the protection of Army personnel.

 

The PCJSS has always kept the door open for dialogue to resolve the Chittagong Hill Tracts issues through political and peaceful means. For this purpose, the PCJSS held 6 and 13 formal dialogues with the governments of Ershad and Khaleda Zia respectively. During the last one, after holding 7 round of dialogues with the Sheikh Hasina government, the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord was signed in Dhaka on 2 December 1997 between the National Committee on Chittagong Hill Tracts on behalf of the government of Bangladesh and the PCJSS on behalf of the permanent residents of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Tribal Bazar//

Bandarban has a small street market most days, but the place really throngs on Sunday and Wednesday when traders come in from across the district to buy and sell produce. Trading is conducted in Marma rather than Bengali, and it's quite unlike anything you'll see elsewhere in Bangladesh. Expect piles of gorgeous fruit and vegetables, sticky mounds of fish paste, buckets of crabs, frogs and fish and lots of old women smoking hand-rolled cheroots.

 

Chakma Islands//

 

This whole area is a Chakma stronghold, but two islands in particular are interesting to visit. Rajbari is where the Chakma king has his rather unimpressive, recently rebuilt palace. You can’t enter the palace, but you can peek inside the nearby Buddhist temple. There are stalls set up here selling brightly coloured handmade Chakma fabrics. A rowboat (Tk 2) brings people across to Rajbari from Rajbari Ghat.   

 

Bana Vihara Monastery//

 

Bana Vihara, which can be reached, either via Rajbari Ghat, or via a bridge slightly further west, houses a large Buddhist monastery, constructed by Chakma Buddhist monks in 1972. You can wander the grounds, peek inside the temples and see monks making wooden boats by the water’s edge on the eastern side of the island.

 

Bandarban Museum//

 

This small museum offers some interesting insights into the traditional cultures of the Hill Tracts. There are displays of tribal dress, jewellery, basketwork and so on. There's not much interpretation to the exhibits, so you'll get more out of it if you have a guide. It's not signed in English, and you might need to ask for it to be opened up.

 

Kaptai Lake//

 

Dotted with islands, Kaptai is Bangladesh's largest artificial lake, created in 1960 for a hydroelectric project. It's a beautiful spot, and very popular with Bengali sightseers, but because of permit restrictions, the number of places foreigners can visit on the lake is constrained.

The most popular trip is Shuvalong Falls. This modest waterfall is little more than a trickle for most of the year, but the boat trip out to it is fabulous; first crossing the vast expanse of the main lake, then entering an area of islands covered with banana plants, and finally a dramatic pass through a steep-sided gorge.
The Hanging Bridge, a low suspension bridge, not far from the Parjatan Holiday Complex, is another popular boat-trip destination.
The small Chakma islands at the other end of Rangamati are another popular boat stop, although, like the Hanging Bridge, they can also be reached by land.
Another popular trip with local tourists is the two-hour ride to Kaptai Town, but the town itself is a bit of a dump.
There are small boat ghats all around the lake, but the main two are Reserve-Bazar Ghat and Tobolchuri Ghat. Passenger ferries shuttle locals from Reserve-Bazar to places such as Kaptai Town. They’re sometimes reluctant to take foreigners, but you can get to Shuvalong Falls for Tk 50 if they let you on. Otherwise, you’ll have to hire your own boat. Prices depend largely on your bargaining skills. At the time of research, Tk 600 per boat per hour was the going rate.

 

Dhatu Jadi//

Perched on a hilltop about three kilometres north of town in Bala Gata village is the large glowing Dhatu Jadi, also known as the Golden Temple because of its beautiful golden stupa, one of the most impressive in the country. The Arakanese-style monastery complex, housing the second-largest Buddha in Bangladesh, was only built in 2000, but visiting it is a Burmese blast through and through.

 

Hanging Bridge//

 

Hanging Bridge a low suspension bridge, not far from the Parjatan Holiday Complex, is another popular boat-trip destination.

 

Tribal Cultural Institute Museum//

 

This museum has well-thought-out displays on the Adivasis of the Hill Tracts, including costumes, bamboo flutes, coins, silver-and-ivory necklaces and animal traps. There is also a map showing where the different people of the region live. Look out for the Marma and Chakma ‘books’ carved onto palm leaves, which date from the 1860s.

 

Its the Chittagong Hill Tracts so u can travel this place.

 

Location//