Rowangchhari () is an

upazila An ''upazila'' ( pronounced: ), formerly called ''thana'', is an administrative division in Bangladesh, functioning as a sub-unit of a district. It can be seen as an analogous to a county or a borough of Western countries. Rural upazilas ...

(sub-district) of

Bandarban District Bandarban District (), officially Bandarban Hill District, is a district in South-Eastern Bangladesh, and a part of the Chittagong Division. It is one of the three hill districts of Bangladesh and a part of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the others ...

in southeastern

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

, part of the

Chittagong Division Chittagong Division (), officially Chattogram Division, is geographically the largest of the eight administrative divisions of Bangladesh. It covers the southeasternmost areas of the country, with a total area of and a population according to th ...

History

The tredational house off bangladashi Subcaste place in bandarban

In the 16th century, the

Marma people The Marma () are the second-largest ethnic community in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts, primarily residing in the Bandarban District, Bandarban, Khagrachhari District, Khagrachari and Rangamati Hill Districts. They belong to the same comm ...

emigrated here from the

Kingdom of Mrauk U The Kingdom of Mrauk-U (Arakanese language, Arakanese: မြောက်ဦး ဘုရင့်နိုင်ငံတော်) was a kingdom that existed on the Arakan coastal plain from 1429 to 1785. Based in the capital Mrauk-U, near t ...

Arakan Arakan ( or ; , ), formerly anglicised as Aracan, is the historical geographical name for the northeastern coastal region of the Bay of Bengal, covering present-day Bangladesh and Myanmar. The region was called "Arakan" for centuries. It is ...

. Where the Rakhaing stream (known as a ''chhara'' in Bengali) meets the Tarachha canal, the Marmas established a settlement known as ''Rakhaing Wah'', meaning the "Rakhaing

river mouth A river mouth is where a river flows into a larger body of water, such as another river, a lake/reservoir, a bay/gulf, a sea, or an ocean. At the river mouth, sediments are often deposited due to the slowing of the current, reducing the carryin ...

Bengalis Bengalis ( ), also rendered as endonym and exonym, endonym Bangalee, are an Indo-Aryan peoples, Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the Bengal region of South Asia. The current population is divi ...

from the nearby

Chittagong District Chittagong District (), ( Chatgaiya: Sitang/Chatga), officially Chattogram District, is a district located in south-eastern Bangladesh. It is a part of the Chittagong Division. Due to its geographical location, Chittagong is classified as a s ...

later arrived in the area for trade and commercial purposes. Over time, ''Rakhaing Wah'' grew into a

haat bazaar Haat Bazaar () is an open-air market that serves as a Trading post, trading venue for local people in rural areas and towns mainly in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and India. Haat bazaars are conducted on a regular basis, usually once, twice or th ...

and became known to Bengalis as Rowangchhari (''Rowang'' is the Chittagonian word for

and ''chhari'' refers to a small stream). During the

Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War (, ), also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, was an War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalism, Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which res ...

of 1971, a brawl took place in Nowapatang Union leading to the death of T. N. Ali, a Bengali freedom fighter. Shamsul Islam ibn Amir Hamzah of Main Road and Dr S. A. Mahiuddin ibn Muhammad Abdur Rashid of Rowangchhari Bazar also fought in the war. There are also seven other individuals from Rowangchhari not mentioned in the official gazette that are said to have taken part. These are: Tarachha's Muhammad Ibrahim ibn Jalal Ahmad, Foraq Ahmad ibn Kala Mia, Qazi Muhammad Thanaullah ibn Qazi Ahmad Safa, Liaqat Ali ibn Faiz Ahmad and Muhammad Abdul Wadud ibn Siraj Ahmad, Rowangchhari Bazar's Abul Hasan Mir ibn Habibullah Mir, Abdul Aziz Chowdhury ibn Ashab Mia Chowdhury and Ejahan Mia ibn Dudu Mia. In 1976, Rowangchhari was established as a

thana Thana means " station" or "place" in South Asian countries. The word ''thana'' originates from the Sanskrit word ''sthana'' or "sthanak", meaning "place" or "stand", which was anglicized as ''thana'' by the British. * Thanas of Bangladesh, forme ...

. Its status was upgraded to

(sub-district) in 1983 as part of the

President of Bangladesh President of Bangladesh (POB), officially the President of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is the head of state of Bangladesh and commander-in-chief of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The role of the president has changed three times since ...

Hussain Muhammad Ershad Hussain Muhammad Ershad (1 February 1930 – 14 July 2019) was a Bangladeshi military officer, dictator and politician who served as President of Bangladesh, the president of Bangladesh from 1982 to 1990. He seized power as a result of a 1982 ...

's decentralisation programme.

Geography

Rowangchhari is located at . It has a total area of 442.88 km².

Demographics

As of the

2022 Bangladeshi census The 2022 Bangladeshi census () was a detailed enumeration of the Bangladeshi population constituting the sixth national census in the country. It was scheduled to be held in June 2022, was conducted by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, and th ...

, Rowangchhari upazila had a population of 27,721. The ethnic population was 24,808 (89.49%), of which Marma were 13,716, Tanchangya 3,990,

Tripura Tripura () is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a populat ...

2,143, Bom 1,882 and Mru 1,685. Rowangchhari is an ethnically diverse sub-district of Bangladesh. It is home to the

who speak Arakanese, the Bawm who speak Bawm, the Tanchangya who speak Tanchangya, the Mru who speak Mru, the Khumi who speak Khumi Chin, the

Khyang The kiang (''Equus kiang'') is the largest of the ''Asinus'' subgenus. It is native to the Tibetan Plateau in Ladakh India, northern Pakistan, Tajikistan, China and northern Nepal. It inhabits montane grasslands and shrublands. Other common name ...

who speak Shö and the

who speak the Chittagonian dialect of Bengali.

Administration

Rowangchhari Upazila is divided into four union parishads: Alikhong, Nowapatang, Rowangchhari, and Tarachha. The union parishads are subdivided into 13 mauzas and 178 villages.

Facilities

There are 43 churches, 41 Buddhist temples, 5 Hindu temples and 12 mosques in Rowangchhari. There are two

madrasa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes Romanization of Arabic, romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any Educational institution, type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whet ...

s in Rowangchhari; the North Chhaingya Nurani Madrasa and the West Chhaingya Nurani Madrasa. The mosques are: #Rowangchhari Jame Mosque, Rowangchhari Bazar #Rowangchhari Wagaipar Jame Mosque #North Chhaingya Jame Mosque #South Chhaingya Jame Mosque #Middle Chhaingya Jame Mosque #East Chhaingya Jame Mosque #Gherau Bazar Jame Mosque #Betchhara Bazar Jame Mosque #Tarachha Mukh Jame Mosque #Muramnango Police Camp Jame Mosque #Banchhaya Jame Mosque, Alekkhang Union #Kachhaptali Para Army Camp Jame Mosque, Alekkhang Union

References