The Boats and the boat carpenters of Bangladesh

The shadowy silhouette of a boat, carrying perhaps a daughter returning for a long-awaited visit to her parents, outlined against the dusk is a typical yet distinctive image of Bangladesh, An image, which unfortunately is disappearing faster. Once renowned for its rivers, canals, beels, hoars, today the majority of the water bodies of Bangladesh are not navigable during the dry season. Boats used to be the chief mode of travel or carrying crops to distant markets. Now the rivers are silting up and giving way to concrete roads, the graceful contours of wooden country boats succumb to the harsh lines of steel crafts.

Boat racing was traditionally a common phenomenon in every part of the country. But gradually the game lost its glory confining it only to some selected places across the country, which includes rivers in Kishoreganj and the Buriganga. Unfortunately, urban people are not that interested in boat races. Some dedicated organizers will come forward and save this sport.

Through centuries, the boat-makers of Bengal have evolved a multitude of crafts: Balam, Pansi, Patam, Malar, Bajra,Gosti, Ghashi, Kosha, Shampan, Jong to name a few. There are variations in the lines of the boats as in the oars, sails, and hulls.Taking shape from the adequacy and harmony between technology, environment, perfect knowledge of the elements through thousands of years, these traditional vessels are perfect for plying the restless waters even in high monsoon.

The naval master-carpenters of Bengal have worked at their craft for over a thousand years. Through their constant relation with the wind and the water, they have created tools that have reached perfection: the traditional boats of Bangladesh. Without realising it, carpenters have become artists. Their ceaseless search for excellence and their love for their task have guided then towards beauty. They have developed a fleet that became the most diverse in the world.

Bangladesh, the “Country of Thousand Rivers”, is an ever changing labyrinth of rivers leading into the Bay of Bengal. Hence, the carpenters had to develop both sea ships and river boats. Sea going ships are still used for fishing and carrying freight in the Bay of Bengal. This sea can be furious from April to September. The design of Bangladesh’s sea boats is one of the safest and also the most well-adapted to the Gulf of Bengal.

Approximately 150 types of boats still populate the flood-basin and they vary in design, size and construction materials. They would be either of Bainkata type or of flat bottom type. A bainkata type boat would have a golui fore and a spoon shaped hull whereas a flat bottom type would have neither

Wood is the commonest material used. Traditionally, boats are made by carpenters who will learn the skill by apprenticeship. Seasoning of timber is important in boat making. Commonly used timber are from local woods Jarul(Lagerstroemia speciosa), Garjan (dipterocarpus turbinatus), sal (shorea robusta), sundari (heritiera fomes), and Burma teak (tectons grandis).

It is extremely difficult to identify how many different types of river boats there are in Bangladesh. This diversity renders the search for similarities easier than making an attempt of describing differences.

The main techniques are:

The boards are grooved, warmed by controlled sawdust fires, curved with wooden levers, then joined and kept under pressure. They are then stitched together by steel-staples reminiscent of modern surgical staples, bringing close together the two sides of a notch. Each staple is placed at a distance of an inch from then next one. The hull is stapled on the inside and on the outside with around 30,000 staples for a middle-sized boat. (the Egyptians were using “stitched boards” in 3000 or 4000 BC).

Once the hull is finished, looking somewhat like an “empty spoon”, frames are cut in a curved shape and joined to the hull with big nails. These nails are curved twice to a 90 degree angle so that they stick back into the same piece of wood, making it impossible to come off by themselves.

Tillers should not actually be called tillers: they are really an extension of the oar, which is used as a rudder on small boats. With the boats increasing in size, this ‘directing oar’ underwent changes and had to be linked to the boat to help the helmsman fight against the push. This rudder is lateral and does not run through the hull. There is no mechanical articulation: a dissymmetrical network of ropes transmits the forces to the hull. These tiller oars prove that the manufacturing technology of these boats goes back a thousand years.



The beautiful large red, stone coloured sails (from the iron pigment of some soils), are cut in a double trapezoid shape. The shape provides keen efficiency in the back breezes but prevents them from sailing against the wind.



This heritage implies the responsibility to transmit it to the next generation. Unfortunately, we are contemporary to the last generation of naval carpenters in Bangladesh. The speed with which naval construction techniques have evolved of late is due to the advent of engines, the use of more reliable and cheaper materials than wood, tinplate sheets and steel sheets, electric welding techniques etc. These new techniques enable to manufacture boats much faster and at a lower cost. These are favourable to navigation but are destroying in a single generation an art and tradition that have managed to survive for thousands of years.




It we don’t pay attention, and if we do not decide to act, not a single master-carpenter will ever teach the tradition of building these “Country Boats” to his children anymore. Their know-how will disappear within 10 years or less and we will never be able to find it nor reproduce it. It is high time to warn the world. And to start preserving this heritage that belongs, not only to Bangladesh but also to humanity.




Photographs: Naheed Mehedi Rehman

Special thanks to: www.ambafrance-bd.org, www.southasiabiz.com and Wikipedia