Greek Memorial, Dhaka
Greek Memorial in TSC Complex, University of Dhaka
|
|
| Coordinates | 23°43′54″N 90°23′47″E / 23.7318°N 90.3963°ECoordinates: 23°43′54″N 90°23′47″E / 23.7318°N 90.3963°E |
|---|---|
| Location | TSC (Teacher-Student Centre) of University of Dhaka |
Greeks were the late comers to the area of Bangladesh among foreigners. They came to Bangladesh around the 18th century. They constructed a memorial in Dhaka. It was constructed for the memory of the Greek merchants who died while in Dhaka. The Greek memorial was built around AD 1900, and appears like an ancient Greek temple; it is a small yellow structure on land owned by the Greek Community, which flourished in Dhaka in the 19th century. It is inside the Teachers and Students Training Centre (TSC) of the University of Dhaka and stands alone on the main Shahbagh Avenue and faces Ramna Race Course. To its southern side is the Atomic Research Centre and to its north a Student's Centre. It is considered to be the only such structure extant outside Greece.
The earliest record of a 'Modern', commercial Greek presence in India is to be found in the Latin Memorial tablets of two Greek merchants in the Catholic Cathedral of Calcutta- the dates of their deaths in this city are given as 1713 and 1728. Some Greeks arrived overland through Persia and Afghanistan but many more chose the sea route via the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. They came from the Greek Diaspora- from Asia Minor, from the Aegean and Ionian Islands, from mainland Greece but especially from the Thracian city of Philippopolis (now called Plovdiv and lying within Bulgaria). They settled chiefly in Dhaka and in Calcutta. It is difficult to be precise about their numbers but between 1770 and 1800 there were probably about two hundred or more Greeks in Dhaka and Narayanganj and somewhat less in Calcutta. Most of the Bengal Greeks were engaged in trade. Mainly they used to trade jute and salt. Somewhere around the mid 19th century their business broke down and in the last quarter of the 19th century the London-based Greek firm of Ralli Brothers constructed a memorial at Ramna in Dhaka to the memory of their early merchants 1820–1860. Many historians believed in 1815, it was built at the initiative of priest JM MacDonald of the St Thomas Church. Among the foreigners the Greeks were the last to settle as a community in Dhaka.
...
Wikipedia