Monument and memorial, Chattogram
Shrine of Bayazid Bostamiবায়েজিদ বোস্তামীর মাজার
- Time needed
- An hour.
- Cost
- Free; buy turtle food at the gate rather than bringing your own.
A hilltop shrine at Nasirabad attributed to the Persian Sufi Bayazid of Bastam, with a Mughal-era mosque and a pond full of the rare Bostami softshell turtles that pilgrims feed; busy every Thursday evening.
At a glance
- Named for
- Bayazid Bastami (d. 874), Persian Sufi; a visit by tradition, not a burial
- Turtles
- Bostami softshell turtle, found only in this pond
- Where
- Nasirabad hill, north of the city centre
About
Bayazid Bostami, the ninth-century mystic of Bastam in Iran, almost certainly never came to Bengal, and the shrine's own keepers tell the story as a visit rather than a burial: he came, people begged him to stay, and he left a drop of his blood to be buried on the hill. What is certain is that a tomb enclosure, a mosque in the Mughal manner and a large tank have stood on this hillock at Nasirabad for centuries, and that it is one of the most visited shrines in the country.
The pond is the shrine's wonder. It holds a colony of large black softshell turtles, the Bostami turtle, a species found nowhere else in the wild and listed as extinct outside this pond; the keepers call them the souls of sinners turned to turtles by the saint, and pilgrims feed them bananas and bread from the steps. Up the flight of stairs is the tomb under its brick cover, where people pray, tie threads and leave offerings. Thursday evenings and the annual urs bring the largest crowds.
Getting there: CNG or bus to Bayazid Bostami gate on the Nasirabad road, 20–30 minutes from the station.
Things to do
- Feed the turtles from the pond steps, then climb to the tomb and the old mosque.
Good to know
- Cover your head and remove shoes at the tomb; women enter the tomb enclosure only as far as the keepers allow.
- Thursday evening is the atmosphere and the crush; a weekday morning is calm.
