Island, Bagerhat
Dublar Charদুবলার চর
- Time needed
- A day as part of a cruise; the mela is three days by convoy.
- best months
- Nov–Feb
- Cost
- Included in a cruise that goes there; the mela convoy trawlers from Mongla are priced per head each year.
A fishermen's island at the sea edge of the Sundarbans, a city of drying fish for five months a year, and the site of the Rash Mela, when pilgrims bathe in the sea at the November full moon.
Plan your visit
- Best time
- The three days of Rash Purnima in November for the mela; November to February for the fishing camps.
At a glance
- Island
- About 15 km long, 66 km²
- Season
- October to March, about 35,000 fishermen
- Rash Mela
- Three days at the Kartik full moon (November)
About
South of the forest, where the Pasur's old mouth meets the Bay of Bengal, lies a low island fifteen kilometres long that is empty for half the year and a town for the other half. From October to March, after the monsoon, some 35,000 fishermen from Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Chattogram and Cox's Bazar camp on Dublar Char under forest department licence, and the beach becomes the largest dried-fish yard in the Sundarbans: loitta, churi and small shrimp spread on bamboo racks in the sun for three to five days, then shipped to Chattogram's Asadganj market. There are temporary bazaars, generator lights, mobile banking agents and no bank; only the Teletalk network reaches it.
For three days around Rash Purnima in Kartik, the November full moon, the island fills with Hindu pilgrims. Tradition dates the Rash Mela to a forest-dwelling devotee named Haribhajan in 1923, though people call it two hundred years old. Devotees arrive by trawler in a forest-department convoy, sing kirtan through the night, and at dawn walk into the sea with fruit to float on the water. The forest department opens set boat routes for the festival and nothing else; outside it, Dublar Char is reached only on a cruise that includes it, usually from Katka. It is remote, exposed and hot, and for the fishing camps or the mela, unforgettable.
Getting there: By sea only: on a cruise from Mongla or Khulna that includes it, or in the forest department's Rash Mela trawler convoy from Mongla.
Things to do
- Walk the drying yards at dawn and watch the catch come in.
- At the mela, stay up for the kirtan and go down to the water at sunrise.
- Buy shutki from the fishermen themselves; it is the freshest in the country.
Good to know
- Only a forest-department convoy or a licensed cruise may land; there is no independent way to go.
- Bring drinking water, sun cover and cash; the island has none of them to spare.
- Cyclone season is October and May; watch the forecast.
