Ethnic Cultural Academy Birisiri

Ethnic Cultural Academy is an autonomous institution located at Birishiri in Durgapur, 37 km away from Netrakona district. The Tribal Cultural Academy has been established with the aim of preserving the cultural heritage of various small ethnic groups including Hajong, Koch, Dalu, Mandai, Banai living in Greater Mymensingh region.

People of small ethnic groups are rich in their own language, social customs, clothing, food habits, rituals and traditional culture. With the evolution of time, much of their cultural heritage was about to be lost. Tribal Cultural Academy was established on an area of ​​about 3.21 acres in 1977 through a special project of the Ministry of Culture to promote the culture of the small ethnic groups of Bangladesh to the world. Presently this cultural academy is being run as per the “Minor Ethnic Group Cultural Act”.

The Tribal Cultural Academy arranged with different types of trees has 4 branches like culture, research, library, museum etc. Dotala's tribal museum preserves the artifacts and artifacts used by the small tribes. Apart from this, the academy has an auditorium and a guest house in its campus. Every year tribal cultural events gather here in large numbers from different parts of the country.

Entry fee to Tribal Cultural Academy is Rs 2, and entry fee to Museum is Rs 10. The academy museum is open 5 days a week from Sunday to Thursday.

You can go to Netrokona by Netro or Shahjalal bus from Dhaka's Mohakhali bus terminal. You can reach Tribal Cultural Academy from Netrakona by local bus to Durgapur by rickshaw. Again from Mymensingh you can go to Birishiri Minority Cultural Academy located near Utrail Bazar via Shyamganj. Besides, you can take the train from Dhaka to Jaria station in Durgapur and go to Cultural Academy by autorickshaw/CNG.

Durgapur has several foodie hotels like Hotel Nirala, Hotel Dulal and Niribili Restaurant. If you get a chance, don't forget to taste Netrakona's popular Balish Sweets.

Other places of interest in Netrakona include Birishiri, Someswari River, Kamalarani Dighi, Seven Martyrs Shrine and Dinga Pota Hao.

Feature Image: Nehal Nahyan