Buddhism returns to Bangladesh's northern plains

When Shapon Akka was growing up in a small Oraon village in Dinajpur, Buddhism belonged to history.

His community followed Sarna traditions, an Indigenous faith centered on nature and ancestral spirits. Nearly all 40 households in the village practiced them.

Buddhist monasteries existed only as archaeological ruins scattered across northern Bangladesh, remnants of a civilization that had vanished centuries earlier.

Today, the village is different. Every Oraon family identifies as Buddhist.

"We did not become Buddhists for money or any worldly benefit," Akka, 43, joint secretary of the Uttarbanga Buddhist Federation, told Daily Waadaa. "We were drawn by the teachings of the Buddha."

Across northern Bangladesh, a quiet religious revival has unfolded over the past three decades. Thousands of Oraons, one of Bangladesh's largest Indigenous communities, have embraced Buddhism, describing it as a return to an ancestral faith they believe their forebears practiced before centuries of political and religious change reshaped the region.

Unlike many religious movements, this one has not been driven by missionary campaigns or material incentives. Participants say it emerged from historical research, conversations with Buddhist monks and a growing awareness of the region's ancient past.

In a country where Buddhists account for less than one percent of the population and are concentrated largely in Chittagong and the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the revival has created an unexpected Buddhist landscape hundreds of miles away on the northern plains.

The movement traces its modern beginnings to the mid-1990s.

In 1994, senior monks from the Dhaka International Buddhist Monastery traveled to Rangpur and surrounding districts carrying historical documents instead of promises of economic assistance.

Their message was simple: northern Bangladesh had once been one of Buddhism's great centers, and many Indigenous communities retained cultural practices scholars believed reflected those earlier traditions.

The following year, Mithapukur Benubon Vihara was established in Rangpur—the first modern Buddhist monastery built in northern Bangladesh in decades. It became the center of a movement that spread across Rangpur, Dinajpur, Naogaon, Joypurhat and neighboring districts.

Today, according to the Uttarbanga Buddhist Federation, roughly 10,000 Oraons have embraced Buddhism. Akka estimates that more than 95 percent came from Sarna traditions, while only a small number previously identified as Christians.

For many participants, the attraction lies less in theology than in ethics.

Bimal Khalko, who embraced Buddhism in 2001 after being raised in a Hindu family, said the religion's emphasis on compassion, nonviolence and rational inquiry appealed to him.

"People today are searching for peace," he told Waadaa. "Buddhism teaches compassion and encourages us to question rather than blindly believe."

Scholars say the movement's voluntary character distinguishes it from many historical religious shifts.

Professor Sukomal Barua, who has documented the revival for decades, said poverty among Indigenous communities often leads outsiders to assume religious change is driven by financial incentives.

"That is not what we have seen here," he told Waadaa. "These communities sought us out. They believe they are rediscovering a heritage that belongs to them."

The historical basis of that belief remains debated, but northern Bangladesh occupies a central place in Buddhist history.

Known historically as Varendra, the region flourished under the Pala dynasty between the eighth and twelfth centuries. Buddhist kings sponsored vast monasteries that drew scholars from across Asia.

Institutions such as Somapura Mahavihara at Paharpur, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, ranked among the medieval world's most important Buddhist universities.

Scholars including Atisa Dipankara, Shilabhadra and Santaraksita emerged from this intellectual tradition, carrying Buddhist philosophy from Bengal to Tibet and beyond.

That world faded after the decline of Pala rule. Hindu dynasties replaced Buddhist rulers, monasteries were abandoned or destroyed, and many monks migrated to Myanmar, Nepal and Bhutan.

Buddhism survived in southeastern Bangladesh, particularly in Chittagong and the Hill Tracts, but largely disappeared from the north.

Some researchers argue that elements of Buddhist practice endured among Indigenous communities even after formal institutions vanished.

Dr Dilip Kumar Barua, vice chancellor of Kishoreganj University, believes many Oraons gradually assimilated into Hindu society after Buddhism declined while preserving fragments of earlier traditions.

"By the nineteenth and twentieth centuries," he said, "some members of the community began rediscovering those historical connections and sought to re-establish ties with Buddhist institutions."

Those interpretations remain difficult to verify. Yet for many Oraons, archaeology has become part of personal history.

Ancient Buddhist sites such as Paharpur, Jagaddala and Sitakot are scattered across the same landscape where many Oraon villages stand. 

For some residents, that proximity reinforces the belief that their ancestors once belonged to the Buddhist civilization that flourished there.

Anita Minji remembers hearing those conversations as a child.

She was in second grade when her family embraced Buddhism in Mithapukur after her father encountered Buddhist teachings while working as a day laborer in Dhaka.

Before then, she said, her family worshipped the earth beneath a sacred tulsi plant in their courtyard, following customary Oraon practices.

The monastery soon became more than a place of worship. "It changed how people thought about education and their future," Minji told Waadaa.

She recalls a community where early marriage, alcohol abuse and limited educational opportunities were common. Monks encouraged families to keep children in school, delay marriage and pursue higher education.

Many children later received scholarships or enrolled in Buddhist schools and monastic institutions in Cox's Bazar, Cumilla and elsewhere.

The transformation also reshaped the physical landscape.

Historical records compiled by Professor Barua show the revival had produced 21 monasteries serving roughly 6,000 people by the early 2000s. Today, community leaders say there are 26 monasteries, including one under construction, with Rangpur remaining the movement's principal center.

The revival has not meant abandoning Oraon identity.Many families describe themselves as adapting traditional customs to Buddhist principles.

Festivals such as Karam and Sarhul continue through music, dance and communal gatherings. Animal sacrifice, however, has often been abandoned because Buddhism's first precept prohibits taking life.

Rather than abandoning the festivals, many communities have preserved their cultural traditions while setting aside rituals they consider incompatible with Buddhist ethics.

At the Benubon Buddhist Monastery in Mithapukur, Shuvamitra Bhikkhu, himself an Oraon, sees the movement less as organized conversion than as gradual cultural change.

"We do not arrange mass ceremonies to make people Buddhists," he said. "People come because they appreciate the way of life. Many already consider themselves Buddhists before any formal initiation."

That gradualism may explain why the revival has attracted little national attention.

There have been no dramatic public campaigns or political movements. The changes have unfolded family by family, village by village, over more than three decades.

The revival has also reshaped the community's relationship with the wider Buddhist world.

Organizations such as the Bangladesh Buddhist Federation and the Brukayo Indigenous Development Foundation have connected northern Bangladesh's Buddhist communities with monasteries and educational institutions elsewhere in the country.

With formal Buddhist education limited in the north, many Oraon families began sending their children to schools and monastic academies in Ukhiya, Ramu, Cox's Bazar and Cumilla.

Some have gone on to become monks, teachers and community leaders, creating a generation that combines religious education with formal schooling.

For Professor Sukomal Barua, the transformation is visible not only in demographic figures but in everyday life.

"When we first visited these villages, people would keep a small Buddha statue hidden in a corner of the courtyard," he recalled. "Today their children sing Buddhist hymns, young men have become monks, and monasteries have become places where children receive both religious and secular education."

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