religion in Bangladesh culture post #1

[Andrew Lyell]

Bangladesh has an interesting relationship with religion.  Although the country is 90% muslim, the government was actually founded to be secular one and still is to this day.  When I was in Bangladesh, although I met many Muslims, I also interacted with Hindus, Christians, and Buddhists.  From my experience, these groups tended to talk about their concept of god using different terms than the Muslims.  I believe this comes from that fact that Muslims still refer to the Arabic for their terms, while especially the Hindus and Buddhists rely on sanskrit as their original language.   However both groups could very easily understand the other’s descriptions.

 

Just like American culture, Bangladeshis can often be heard saying “hey allah—o my god” as well as “en shallah—if the lord wills.”  However to greeting different people is entirely based on your location or your knowledge of their religion.  For example in Dhaka the capital it would be proper to say to anyone “the peace of god be with you” using the Muslim noun for god.  However in the villages or less prominent cities more people will greet each other with the Hindu greeting of “nomoskar” which literally means “I bow to you”. 

 

Suffice to say, knowing the basics of each religion and the words to describe their experiences are very important tools in understanding Bangladeshi culture and language.