Bhfaisal427 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Park, eco park and picnic spot, Cumilla

BARD campus, Kotbariবার্ড ক্যাম্পাস, কোটবাড়ি

Time needed
An hour.
best months
Oct–Mar
Cost
Free.

The Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development, founded by Akhtar Hameed Khan in 1959: a green, planned campus on the Lalmai slope beside the ruins, where the Comilla model of cooperatives was born, and a favourite walk for the city.

At a glance

Founded
1959, Akhtar Hameed Khan

About

BARD trains rural development officers and runs research, but visitors know it for its grounds: tree-lined roads, lawns, a lake, a small museum of the academy's history and the guesthouse. The campus sits next to Shalban Vihara and Rupban Mura, so most people see all three in one visit. Entry is open in daylight; the buildings are not.

Getting there: Kotbari, beside Shalban Vihara.

Things to do

  • Walk the lake road after Shalban Vihara.

Good to know

  • It is a working institute; keep to the roads.

Getting there

Read the Cumilla guide

Nearby

Archaeological siteAfifa Afrin · CC BY-SA 4.0

Rupban Mura

1 km, Cumilla

A monastery-and-shrine mound on the Kotbari road opposite Itakhola, dug in the 1990s: a semi-circular temple with a seated stone Buddha, among the oldest finds on the ridge (6th–7th century).

Archaeological siteবিশ্বজিৎ দাস · CC BY-SA 4.0

Itakhola Mura

1 km, Cumilla

Across the road from Rupban Mura: a stupa complex and monastery on three terraces of the hillside, named for the brick kilns that once quarried it, with a gold-filled relic chamber found in the digs.

Archaeological siteSakib Ahmed Nasim · CC BY-SA 3.0

Shalban Vihara

1 km, Cumilla

The largest and best-kept of the Mainamati ruins: a square Buddhist monastery of 115 cells around a central shrine, built by the Deva kings around the 8th century and dug out of the sal forest in the 1950s.

Museum and galleryAfifa Afrin · CC BY-SA 3.0

Mainamati Museum

2 km, Cumilla

The site museum beside Shalban Vihara: bronze Buddhas, terracotta plaques, copper plates, coins and pottery from the Mainamati digs, with a model of the whole ridge.

Archaeological site

Kotila Mura

3 km, Cumilla

Three stupas in a row inside the Mainamati cantonment, 5 km north of Shalban, standing for the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha; the best-preserved stupas on the ridge, but inside army land.

Hills and mountainsFerdous · CC BY-SA 4.0

Lalmai Hills

3 km, Cumilla

The red-earth ridge that runs 8 km south from Mainamati: low hills of Pleistocene clay with forest, Buddhist mounds along the top and the Chandi Mura temple at the southern end.

Location

BARD campus, Kotbari, Cumilla
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