From Rajshahi I continued north stopping at Bogra as a base for visiting the remains of the 8th century monastery Somapuri Vihara at Paharpur. Once one of the largest monastery complexes of its time it has now been reduced to a collection of brick foundations, although quite a bit of masonry work and some decorative terracotta tiles still remain from the central temple/stupa.
My last stop on my excursion into Bangladesh’s northwest was Dinajpur in order to visit the nearby Kantanagar Temple built in 1752, and reputably the finest example of the Bengali terracotta and brick temple style in Bangladesh. In Dinajpur I met a friendly government employee who ended up taking me around the area on his motor bike to visit the sites including the Kantanagar Temple. Yet another example of Bangladeshi’s going out of there way to help me out.
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