Traditional foods and items like handloom made by ethnic minority people from the hills and plains of Bangladesh were the attractions at the four-day Cultural Diversity Festival that began at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka on Thursday.
Aimed at introducing traditional goods to mainstream people and to exhibit cultural activities like dances and songs of the minority people, the festival with the theme ‘unity in diversity’ has been jointly organised by the ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs and the United Nations Development Programme.
The festival, open to all and having 114 stalls by the ethnic minority people, drew a huge crowd on Friday.
Foods like fish, rice and meat cooked traditionally inside bamboos, kebab, steamed fish cooked in banana leaves and traditional cakes were some of the main attractions at the fair.
Ornament boxes, wooden pencil boxes, show-pieces, soap and cosmetics that find way to the local markets from neighbouring Myanmar are also being sold at the fair, visitors said.
Hirohito Chakma, a stall owner, said they did not have any choice but bring the non-traditional items to make a little profit.
‘But traditional clothes, cookeries and other items of the hill people are also being sold,’ said Hirohito.
The fair will continue till December 5 and remain open from 10:00am to 8:00pm.
