A lake town in the Chittagong Hill Tracts — Chakma boat markets, Buddhist temples on stilts, and the most topographically unlike the rest of Bangladesh
Rangamati is the capital of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in southeastern Bangladesh — a region of forested hills along the Myanmar border that is physically, culturally, and ethnically distinct from the rest of the country. The town sits on the shores of Kaptai Lake, an artificial reservoir created by the Kaptai Dam in 1963 that displaced over 100,000 Chakma people (a trauma still unresolved and central to CHT politics) but that also created a dramatic lake landscape of submerged forest and island-dotted water. The Chakma, Marma, and Tripura indigenous peoples maintain distinct Buddhist t…
The Chittagong Hill Tracts were never fully absorbed into the Bengal Presidency — the hill peoples maintained semi-autonomous status under both Mughal suzerainty and British indirect rule through a circle chief (headman) system. The region became part of East Pakistan in 1947 despite its non-Muslim majority (a decision still politically contested). The Kaptai Dam's construction displaced the Chakma heartland and generated lasting grievances. A guerrilla insurgency by the Shanti Bahini (People's Liberation Front) lasted from 1977 to 1997 and claimed tens of thousands of lives. The 1997 Chittag…