The Sylheties who are an Indo-Aryan ethnical group live in Sylhet region Bangladesh.These are the people who have diversity in language,folk musics,foods and festival.They are maintaining their culture greatly even in abroad.Morever,because of their uniqueness they are different then other regions of Bangladesh.The people of Assam,Tripura,Shilong,Meghalaya have similarities with the Sylhetis.
Language:
The word Sylheti came from “Srihattya” which was the ancient name.People live in Sylhet speak Sylheti language and they respect their language a lot.Furthermore,Sylhet has their own script named “Nagri Script.
In the ancient time Nagri Script was used a lot in puthis,folk music and so on.Thus,Sylheti’s indentity is highly related with their language.Sylheti language is mostly famous because of its phonetic qualities.Likewise,”Halat-un-nabi” is the famous puthi which was written in Nagri by Sadeq Ali.
Religion:
Before the year of 1303,Sylhet was full of hindus and Buddhists.At that time Raja Gour Govinda used to rule Sylhet.The king was so cruel at that time.Thus,the famous sufi saint,historical figure of Bengal Hazrat Shahjalal with his uncle Shah Poran and 360 Awliya fought against this king.
Later,the sufi saints miraculously won against Govinda.Thus,now majority of the people living in Sylhet are Muslim and second highest of them are Hindus.Morever, there are also some Christians and Buddhists too.All of them are maintaining their religion peacefully.
Clothing:
In Sylhet, all the men and women wear modest cloth.By the impacts of sufi saints muslim men and women wear Islamic cloths.Maximum muslim women wear burqa,hijab and niqab while outing.However,the men also wear cloths maintaining their aura.Women are safe compared to other regions.Men and Women free mixing is highly avoided.
Morever,other religion people also respect the sufi saints and they also wear modest cloths.However, muslim sylheties also follow islam strictly even in their houses.Women cover themselves in Islamic way to the non mehrams.Thus,people from other districs also love sylheties a lot .
Workplace:
Maximum the main person who run a house in Sylhet is Men.Women generally are housewives.Men of Sylhet mostly do business but some also do various govt jobs.But, maximum men go to abroad because sylheties have great fascination towards going abroad.Thus,they are contributing greatly in remittance.
The sad thing is in Sylhet people are not that educated like other districts.Some young people who study or are good in studies mostly go to Europe for better facilities.This is kind of alarming that young generation has decreased in Sylhet.
Also,the girls who do not want to continue their studies get married to other Europe settled Men.Likewise,they leave Bangladesh.Beacuse of this culture,many girls intentionally do not want to focus in their careers.And boys also have lost their interest in studies because of the attraction of going abroad.that is the reason in every board exams the percentage of fail students are more in Sylhet.Nowadays,in every house of Sylhet there is at least one member who is in UK.
Festival:
Sylheties all festivals are same as other regions of Bangladesh.But there is slightly differences in wedding customs.There are so many folk songs which are available in Sylheti language.
Some legendary baul singers of Sylhet are Shah Abdul Karim,Hason raja,Jalal Uddin Khan and more.Their famous song are “Aage ki shundor din kataitam”,”Lokey bole bole re”, “Keno piriti lagaila bondu re” and so on.Morever,Some modern singers are Muza,Toshiba more.Also,most famous wedding geets are “Rongila daman”, “Koinna shajaw” ,”Lembur tole”..
In Sylheti weddings,”Dhamail” is the famous dance by women and sometimes men too.There is a custom called “Pan chini” where lots of dalas and most importantly “Pan” dalas are made by the women.This is when a wedding date is about to fixed.Later,after wedding the customes are “Mach bazar” by the groom,Breakfast custom by the family of the bride.Others like haldi,mehndi etc functions are same as other regions.
Traditional food:
Sylheti’s famous curries are “Shatkora Beef”, “Hutki shira” made with dried fish, “Tangy curry” made with sour fruits or vegetables, “Biron bhat” made with sticky rice or random rice..All of these are served with rice.However,in ifter sylheties like to have “Patla Khichuri” this help them to feel relaxed and healthy.
For snacks sylheties like to have Tea.The seven colour tea is famous for its amazing quality and design.Furthermore,”Pan shupari” is very important after having the meal.Some pithas are “Handesh”, “Nunor bora”, “Choi pitha”.
Sylhet City vs village:
Sylhet cities have more facilities then villages.Modern hospitals,Electricity,Internet connection,Pure water supply,Roads,Shopping mall,Institutes etc.In Sylhet cities there are many forests,tress,resorts which attract the tourists.Some people have their own houses and some live in rented houses.However,people are enough modest and respectful while living in cities.
Sylhet villages have mixed people some are very wealthy but some are very poor.Wealthy people insure every facilities while living in village areas.Some of them came to Sylhet for better facilities.In some areas there are so many beautiful houses but maximum people do not live there.They often live in abroad and likewise,the houses remain empty.However,the poor people earn money by working in lands,selling vegtables,catching fishes.Some of them try to educate their children but some of them could not do it.But village life of Sylhet is so refreshing because of the good weather.
But sometimes in bad weather people living in both cities and villages suffer a lot specially during the monsoon season.
Community bonding:
The most amazing thing about Sylheti Culture is the sylheties mostly live in joint family.All of them live very happily and support each other in their tough times.Even without any blood relation relatives always help in tough times.Surprisingly,there is no senior citizen home in Sylhet.Thus,the mental growth of both children and old people is increasing because of their connection.
However,even in roads people are so helpful and generous that tourists love Sylhet a lot.