Paharpur Buddha Bihar – Naogaon

Paharput Buddha Bihar is one of our prides from Bangladesh. According to some scholars, this can be the largest Buddhist Bihara from the world. This is located at the Paharpur union of Bodolgachhi Upazila of Naogaon district from Bangladesh. This place is also known as Sompur Buddha Bihar. People called this as Pahar as it looks like a hill (in Bangla hill means Pahar), from there the place is known as Paharpur.

This massive Buddhist Bihara was probably built during the 8th or 9th century by the second king Sree Dhormopaldeb of Paal dynasty. It was active around 300 years for learning and religious researches. Our great Atish Dipankar was the chancellor of this Bihar during the 10th century. People from around the glob used to come here for sharing and learning knowledge.

The central temple of the Bihar was the biggest one and now in dilapidated condition. It has several stores around the temple. From my observation to the other temples around the globe, I believe the people used to walk clockwise around the temple on those as their prayer (I can be wrong). And I also believe, the top of the central temple might have a shrine or similar object there. May be that is ruined while it was having a vie with the time.

How to Go:

There are several ways to visit this place. We have visited this Paharpur Buddha Bihar after visiting the Hinda-Koshba Shahi Mosjid. And to minimize the cost, we have used the public transportation (changed several times). So it was cheap, but time consuming.

This place is accessible both from Naogaon, and Joypurhat district. So whatever is easier for you (according to your tour plan) you can take. After visiting the Paharpur Bihar, we have reached at the Naogaon district using a Public bus service. It has dropped us at the Baludanga bus stand of the town with a cost of 40 Taka per person. It was nearly around a two hours of bus journey. So, if you wish, you can reverse the path to reach this place if want.

For your information, the GPS coordinate of the Paharpur Buddha Bihar is (25° 1’52.50″N, 88°58’36.40″E)

Where to Stay:

It has a guest house at the Bihar premise, so if you are lucky, you can make your reservation over there. We almost made it. But unfortunately couldn’t for few officers (are really they?) over there. It would be awesome for us cause it was the moon light night that time. So after crestfallen we had to return back to the Joypurhut town to find for a hotel.

We have stayed at the Hotel Prithibi and took a cheaper room after a bargain. And at the next day, we returned back to the Paharpur bihar again to explore. We couldn’t do it yesterday as it was already dark that time. And unfortunately enough, we couldn’t manage the room too. But best of luck for you. I believe you can.

Paharpur Buddha Bihar/Sompur Bihar,
Union: Paharpur,
Upazila: Bodolgachhi,
District: Naogaon,
Country: Bangladesh
GPS: (25° 1’52.50″N, 88°58’36.40″E)

This article is written by Lonely Traveler,
for the blog https://alonelytraveler.com/

Saturday, 18 May 2013