The sarees of Dhaka
The capital of Bangladesh and the home of Dhakai jamdani, the hand-patterned muslin saree listed by UNESCO.
Motifs of Dhaka
Woven here
Best time: November to February; mid April for Pohela Boishakh.
GI: Jamdani is registered as a Geographical Indication in Bangladesh.
Dhaka is where jamdani was born and is still woven. Jamdani is a fine cotton cloth in which patterns are added thread by thread during weaving. Bangladesh's jamdani tradition was inscribed on UNESCO's list of the intangible heritage of humanity in 2013, and the saree is the most loved form of the cloth.
What is woven here
A jamdani saree is woven on a loom with a plain ground of fine cotton and patterns, such as flowers, creepers and geometric forms, built in with extra weft threads. The weaver places each motif by hand, so a saree can take weeks. The cloth is sheer and light. Older Dhaka muslin was even finer and was famed across the world.
The craft and its people
Jamdani weavers work on pit looms, usually in teams, with one weaver following the design and a helper. The main weaving area lies east of the city, around Rupganj in Narayanganj district and near Sonargaon. The Bangladeshi jamdani is registered as a Geographical Indication in Bangladesh. In Dhaka, the Mirpur Benarasi Palli area is a cluster of weavers of Banarasi-style sarees, a trade started by weavers who came from Varanasi.
Seeing it
The Bangladesh National Museum at Shahbag holds historical textiles, and the Folk Art and Crafts Museum at Sonargaon, outside the city, shows crafts including weaving. Rupganj and its weaving villages are the places to watch jamdani being made, and the Mirpur area is visited for Banarasi weaving. Shops across the city sell sarees, and Pohela Boishakh in April is the busiest time.
A trail idea for Dhaka
- Bangladesh National Museum See old textiles and costume to put jamdani in its history.
- Mirpur Benarasi Palli Visit the Dhaka cluster where Banarasi-style sarees are woven on looms in small workshops.
- Rupganj weaving villages Travel east of the city to see jamdani being woven on pit looms by teams of weavers.
- Sonargaon Visit the old capital's folk art museum on a second day trip.
Written by the EveryPallu desk with AI assistance. Background: "Dhaka" on Wikipedia. Opening hours, markets and workshops change; check locally before travelling. If something is wrong, tell us.
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