United News of Bangladesh

Durga Bari Stuttgart, a vibrant cultural and social organisation of the Bengali community living in Stuttgart, Germany, will host its grand Durga Puja 2026 celebration from October 2026 16 to 20 at Martin-Luther-Str. The five-day festival will feature traditional Durga Puja rituals and customary ceremonies conducted in accordance with the Hindu Panjika (almanac), alongside a colourful lineup of cultural programs, authentic Bengali cuisine and Bengali street food, said a media release on Thursday. The popularity of Durga Puja celebration is no longer confined to Stuttgart or the federal state of Baden-Württemberg. Today it is regarded as one of the foremost annual gatherings for the Bengali diaspora across Germany. “Dear members, guests and friends, we extend our warmest greetings to you all. Durga Bari Stuttgart is not merely an organization - it is a true home for our culture, heritage and community. Throughout the year, we organise various festivals and cultural programs that bring people together and encourage cross-cultural exchange,” said Bimal Agarwala, President, Durga Bari Stuttgart. “Engaging the next generation is also one of our special goals - we want young people to become familiar with their cultural roots and carry that heritage forward with new-found enthusiasm. This is how we build a living bridge between the past, present and future. I warmly invite you all to join our event and celebrate the diversity of our culture together with us.” Durga Bari Stuttgart is a vibrant organisation of the Bengali community living in Stuttgart, Germany, which nurtures the heritage and culture of Bengal through religious observances, cultural events and social gatherings, and continues its efforts to pass this legacy on to the next generation.

Chinese Valentine's Day is about much more than flowers and chocolates. Known as Qixi, the ancient festival combines romance with legends, prayers and traditional cultural practices that continue to be observed today. Qixi is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar, which fell on Aug. 19 this year. The festival is also observed in Singapore, Vietnam and several other Asian countries.

China’s imperial cuisine, once shaped by elaborate court rituals and the dining traditions of emperors and their households, continues to survive today through restaurants and culinary traditions that preserve dishes from the country’s imperial past. One story associated with Empress Dowager Cixi dates to the final decades of imperial China. It is said that Cixi once dreamed about a pastry and was served the same treat for breakfast the following morning. Delighted, she summoned the chef and rewarded him with a silver ingot. “It was originally called ‘minced pork pancake,’ but because it had fulfilled her dream, it later became known as ‘dream pastry,’” said Zhou Tong, a chef at Fangshan Restaurant in Beijing. Fangshan specializes in imperial cuisine and preserves dishes associated with Cixi as well as other culinary traditions of China’s imperial court. The restaurant was established in 1925 by former Qing Dynasty chefs at Beihai Park, a historic garden where members of several Chinese dynasties rested, conducted government affairs and held ritual ceremonies. “The name Fangshan literally means ‘imitating the imperial cuisine,’” said assistant general manager Di Xin. Several other restaurants in Beijing also offer versions of imperial cuisine, while the Palace Museum preserves Qing Dynasty objects connected to court dining, including molds used to make pastries. Every meal had its own rituals Imperial cuisine included the food eaten daily by emperors as well as elaborate feasts held by the imperial court throughout the year. Each occasion followed specific rituals. At Qing Dynasty banquets, for example, drinking milk tea was an important opening step, said Teng Deyong, a researcher at China’s Palace Museum. During banquets, emperors would present wine or food to princes and government officials. Those receiving the offerings were expected to perform rituals and pay their respects to the emperor before eating or drinking. Sacrificial ceremonies followed a different set of rules and could include offerings of meat. “At the Palace of Earthly Tranquillity, there was the eating of sacrificial pork, which we know was one of the most important rituals of the Qing imperial court,” Teng said. The pork used in the ceremony was boiled without salt. Afterward, it was distributed among guests, and receiving the sacrificial meat was regarded as a significant honor. The practice of serving unseasoned food also has roots in earlier Chinese ritual traditions. Wandi Wang, a professor of Chinese at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, said the “Book of Rites,” a classical text on ceremonies and rituals, describes a meat broth known as “grand stew” that was served without seasoning during sacrificial ceremonies. “The absence of added flavoring was itself meaningful: the unseasoned dish evoked an earlier and simpler way of cooking and thus expressed a ritual ideal of honoring antiquity and remembering cultural origins,” Wang said. Traditional methods preserve imperial pastries Pastries played an important role in imperial cuisine, and the imperial court maintained a specialized institution dedicated to producing them. At Fangshan, Zhou prepares pastries including Cixi’s dream pastry and a small steamed corn bun, using recipes based on imperial court traditions. “When customers visit, our servers often tell them the stories behind these dishes,” Zhou said. “People enjoy them even more because they carry such meaningful history.” Zhou learned traditional pastry-making techniques from a master who had learned them from his own mentor, continuing a craft passed down through generations. Traditional imperial methods require much of the preparation to be done by hand, without blenders or food processors. Beans, for example, are pulverized using sieves, while certain types of flour are prepared in specially made copper pots. “A machine may be more convenient, but the texture is completely different,” Zhou said. “You lose the delicate graininess and sandy mouthfeel that handcrafted pastries are supposed to have.” Fangshan’s popular specialties include pea flour cake and red bean rolls. During peak periods, customers order more than 200 of the cakes each day. Preserving ancient techniques in a changing world When Fan Liangliang joined Fangshan as a kitchen apprentice, he had to relearn much of what he had been taught in culinary school. Instead of using faster techniques, he adopted slower traditional methods that were unfamiliar to him. One such technique is known as “Nizihuo,” which Fan described as mincing ingredients such as fish, shrimp or chicken into a smooth paste and then shaping it into decorative forms such as frogs, birds and flowers. “This is one of the hallmarks of imperial cuisine,” Fan said. “Every dish had to be innovative, visually beautiful, nutritious and worthy of presentation on the imperial dining table.” Some rare ingredients once used in imperial dishes, including bear paws, are no longer served. Fan said modern alternatives are used while attempting to preserve the original character and spirit of the dishes.

A museum exhibition in east China’s Anhui Province is offering visitors a different perspective on the country’s ancient civilization by highlighting its long history of astronomical observation and scientific exploration. Rather than focusing mainly on traditional treasures such as porcelain, calligraphy and ritual vessels, the exhibition features jade cosmological diagrams, ancient star charts and bronze astronomical instruments created by Chinese scholars centuries ago. Titled “Heavenly Questions: The Cosmological Vision of Chinese Civilization,” the exhibition at the Anhui Museum brings together nearly 300 artifacts from 48 institutions across China. It is one of the country’s rare exhibitions dedicated specifically to presenting ancient Chinese views of the universe through cultural relics. Since opening in July, the exhibition has attracted around 350,000 visitors, many drawn by the astronomical instruments once used to observe, measure and understand the cosmos. Among the main attractions is a jade slab dating back 5,800 to 5,300 years and roughly the size of a smartphone. Eight arrows at its center represent the eight directions, while arrows at the four corners appear to correspond with sunrise and sunset positions during the winter and summer solstices. The cosmological diagram may predate Britain’s Stonehenge. Other notable exhibits include China’s oldest equatorial astronomical instrument, a disk bearing the 28 lunar star mansions discovered in the tomb of a marquis dating to 165 BC, and a bronze water clock from the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC-25 AD), the earliest dated water clock ever discovered. The exhibition also features a rubbing of a Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279) stone-carved astronomical chart showing more than 1,400 stars. It remains the oldest known all-sky map based on actual astronomical observations. “These ‘hardcore creations’ in ancient astronomy laid the technological foundation for studying the laws of celestial motion,” said Meng Qian, director of the museum’s research department. The exhibition concludes by connecting ancient astronomical achievements with China’s modern space program. Ancient instruments, including globes and gnomons, are displayed alongside models of modern spacecraft such as the Yutu lunar rover and lunar soil samples collected by the Chang’e-6 mission in 2024. Many of China’s major space missions also carry names rooted in ancient Chinese mythology and culture. The country’s lunar exploration program is named after Chang’e, the legendary goddess of the moon. The Mars rover Zhurong takes its name from an ancient fire god, while the space-survey telescope Mozi is named after the philosopher credited with some of China’s earliest optical experiments. The exhibition takes its title from “Tianwen,” or “Heavenly Questions,” an epic poem written more than 2,000 years ago by patriotic poet Qu Yuan. China’s Mars exploration program also carries the name Tianwen. “This exhibition lets ancient astronomy and modern space exploration illuminate and interpret each other,” said Shi Yunli, a professor at the University of Science and Technology of China and an adviser to the exhibition. “When visitors stand between the folded bronze gnomon and the Yutu rover, they see not just two objects on display, but they see a 5,000-year chain of quest,” Shi said. The exhibition will continue through mid-October as China’s space exploration program moves toward new milestones. “We hope this exhibition will let visitors look back at the early lights of our culture, and also see the way forward,” Meng said.

A 55.6-metre statue of the Virgin Mary, believed to be the tallest of its kind in Europe, was inaugurated Saturday in a small Polish village in the presence of former Polish President and anti-communist icon Lech Walesa. Hundreds of people attended the consecration ceremony in Konotopie, a central Polish village with fewer than 150 residents. Priests in white robes celebrated Mass as helicopters dropped small red roses over the gathering. The ceremony also featured performances of traditional Polish music and dance by the renowned Mazowsze folk ensemble. The statue rises 55.6 metres (182 feet) above the village, including a 15-metre crown-shaped pedestal. It is taller than Rio de Janeiro’s Christ the Redeemer, which stands about 38 metres including its pedestal, and also exceeds Poland’s Christ the King monument in Swiebodzin, which reaches roughly 52 metres including the mound beneath it. A larger statue of the Virgin Mary, measuring about 98 metres, stands in the Philippines. However, the newly unveiled monument in Poland is believed to be Europe’s tallest statue of Mary. Walesa, 82, who led Poland’s anti-communist movement as head of the Solidarity trade union, attended the inauguration from the front row. “I started with the Virgin Mary and I end with the Virgin Mary,” Walesa told The Associated Press, reflecting on the causes he has championed throughout his life, including democracy and Catholicism. During his years leading the Solidarity movement, Walesa was known for wearing a pin depicting the Black Madonna and has frequently spoken about the role of his Catholic faith in his opposition to communist rule. Catholicism has traditionally played a major role in Polish public life. The country is home to St John Paul II, who served as pope from 1978 until his death in 2005. However, the influence of the Catholic Church has declined in recent years, particularly among younger people and urban residents. The Church remains especially influential in rural areas and among older generations. Bishop Wieslaw Mering, who attended the ceremony, said he was concerned about the declining influence of the Church and the growing number of people moving away from Catholicism. He said the history of Christianity has experienced both periods of strength and decline, but described the new monument as a reminder of the enduring role of the Virgin Mary in Poland. The monument was commissioned and financed by Polish entrepreneurs Roman and Grazyna Karkosik, who live in a nearby palace. Roman Karkosik built his fortune through business ventures and investments on the Warsaw Stock Exchange and became one of Poland’s wealthiest people. The couple said they built the monument as an expression of gratitude to God. Grazyna Karkosik said the statue was intended for everyone and expressed hope that visitors would use the experience to reflect on their lives as well as their faith. Local authorities hope the monument will attract pilgrims and tourists to the small village. A viewing platform has been built inside the statue’s pedestal, adding a tourist attraction to the religious site.

The scars of vandalism remain clearly visible at the ‘Swadhinata Sangram’ sculpture complex on Fuller Road at Dhaka University nearly two years after August 5, 2024, with most of the sculptures still lying broken.

Grammy-winning Icelandic singer-songwriter Laufey’s annual fan celebration, “A Very Laufey Day,” has grown into a global event designed to bring her listeners together offline through music, art and community activities. Laufey launched the event in 2023 ahead of the release of her second album, “Bewitched.” She wanted to encourage fans to leave their homes, explore places she had enjoyed and experience what she described as her idea of a “perfect day” while connecting with other listeners. Each year, Laufey creates itineraries for participating cities, directing fans to places such as museums, bookstores, cafes and music venues. What began as a small idea has expanded significantly, with fans also embracing the event by wearing vintage outfits inspired by the singer and treating the occasion as an unofficial holiday. The fourth edition of “A Very Laufey Day” will take place on Aug. 23 and feature activities in 75 cities across 25 countries under the theme “A Celebration of the Arts.” The programme will include performances and cultural events featuring symphony orchestras, ballet, jazz, opera and theatre. Fans will also be able to take part in activities organised with libraries, bookstores, coffee shops and yogurt and ice cream stores. Laufey’s concert film, “A Night at the Symphony: Hollywood Bowl,” will be screened at selected cinemas as part of the celebration. The singer has also partnered with museums and cultural institutions around the world, including New York’s Guggenheim, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, London’s Tate Modern and National Gallery, Chile’s Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, and Seoul’s Daelim Museum. Some participating venues and businesses will offer limited-edition merchandise and special Laufey-themed drinks. Laufey said this year’s event focuses particularly on making arts and cultural institutions more accessible to her predominantly Gen Z and Gen Alpha audience. She said she wanted to reduce the barriers that can make younger people hesitant to visit museums, galleries or attend classical performances and other forms of “high culture.” “These spaces don’t have to be intimidating,” she said, adding that she wants to make such cultural experiences enjoyable and accessible for her fans. The singer described organising the event as a “fun puzzle” each year, with its international reach continuing to expand.

With temperatures nearing 40 degrees Celsius outside, Chicago native Michael Shedd visited a hotpot restaurant located inside a former air-raid shelter in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality. In front of him was a bubbling, intensely spicy broth, but the heat and humidity did not seem to bother him. “I feel it’s cool as I get inside, just like there are air conditioners, but there are not. This is amazing,” Shedd said. Thousands of air-raid shelters were carved into Chongqing’s mountainous terrain in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Once used as refuges for civilians during China’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, many have since been converted into hotpot restaurants, teahouses and venues for Sichuan Opera performances. The shelters offer visitors a naturally cool environment while preserving an important part of the city’s history. “The temperature inside the shelters remains around 25 degrees Celsius all year round,” said Wang Jing, marketing director of the restaurant. During summer weekends, the restaurant serves more than 300 tables a day, with about one in six diners coming from overseas. “I feel like eating in history. The food is also good. You are never gonna find something like this anywhere in the world,” Shedd said, describing the restaurant as “legendary.” As a severe heatwave sweeps across parts of the world this summer, such unusual destinations have helped make “China Cool” a popular term on overseas social media, following the earlier trend of “China Travel.” By late July, bookings for inbound summer trips to China had increased by more than 20 percent from a year earlier. Data from Trip.com showed that European countries accounted for 30 percent of the top 20 source markets for inbound tourism to China this summer. Orders from Europe surged 275 percent year on year, while ticket sales increased by more than 2,000 percent. Natural Retreats China’s vast territory and diverse climate provide numerous natural destinations for visitors seeking relief from the summer heat, ranging from high-altitude plateaus and forested mountains to coastal areas. Huangshizhai, a scenic area in Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in central China’s Hunan Province, stands more than 1,200 meters above sea level. Its dense forests and mountain breezes provide a naturally cool environment. Data from the past five years show that average summer temperatures at major tourist sites in the park ranged between 16 and 25 degrees Celsius from June to August. “For me, it’s been a wonderful trip. I’m here with my family, surrounded by nature and spending time with Chinese friends. It feels great,” said French tourist Isabelle Sala Jaboule while walking along a trail in Huangshizhai. “It’s very hot in France right now, but here we can breathe fresh air and feel so much cooler,” she said. Zhangjiajie National Forest Park received more than 100,000 international tourists in July, up 46.78 percent year on year, with visitors from 148 countries and regions, according to local authorities. A similar increase has been recorded in northeast China. At the Changbai Mountain Scenic Area in Jilin Province, located on the “golden summer escape” belt around 42 degrees north latitude, daily visitor numbers have exceeded 30,000 since the summer peak began in July. The number of overseas tourists has risen 38 percent compared with the same period last year. “This summer, we’ve seen notable growth in tour groups from Europe, the United States and the Republic of Korea,” a staff member at the scenic area said. “Overseas visitors have shown a strong preference for nature-based activities such as forest hiking and splashing in mountain streams, with the area’s consistently cool temperatures the key draw,” the staff member said. “Yesterday we visited the west slope of Changbai Mountain, and today we came to the north slope. We’ve been greeted by waves of cool mountain air. I just want to etch all the scenery before my eyes deep into memory,” said Choi Suk-rye, a visitor from the Republic of Korea. “This is my first time in China, and I hope I can come back often,” said another South Korean traveler, Ahn Sun-mi. Urban Chill China’s cooling infrastructure is also becoming part of the summer travel experience. By 2025, China had 150.6 air conditioners for every 100 households, or more than 1.5 per household, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Over the years, cooling facilities have expanded beyond homes into public spaces, including shopping malls, neighborhood cooling stations, underground shelters and transport hubs. At Huaqiangbei, a large electronics market in Shenzhen, French visitor Jocelyne spent more than an hour exploring a shopping mall. “There’s air conditioning everywhere in China. It’s very comfortable,” she said, pointing to a portable fan she had found. “I’d like to get a few to take back for my friends.” “For European visitors from places where air conditioning is not yet ubiquitous, the sheer availability of cool, air-conditioned spaces almost everywhere in China can be quite a revelation,” said Yang Yong, who works for an international travel agency. At The Ring shopping mall in Chongqing, visitors encounter a lush indoor rainforest rather than rows of conventional stores. Misting systems and specially designed lighting help maintain the temperature at around 21 degrees Celsius. “The scenery in the mall has become quite popular on overseas social media, so I came here to see it for myself,” said Avidar, a visitor from Jordan. “It’s not only a cool place to escape the summer heat, but also a feast for the eyes,” he said. In Chongqing’s historic Mountain City Alley district, a 400-meter pedestrian walkway has also been turned into a “cooling corridor.” Misting systems and shaded areas lower the perceived temperature by 3 to 5 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, 23 subway stations in Shenyang, capital of northeast China’s Liaoning Province, have established cooling areas with benches since June 21. The facilities are open to everyone without requiring a ticket or transit card and will remain available until the end of September. Deeper Stays  China’s expanding visa-free transit arrangements and improved travel facilitation have contributed to a noticeable change in inbound tourism this summer, with visitors staying longer and exploring beyond traditional tourist routes. For many international travelers, “China Cool” means more than escaping high temperatures. It represents a different kind of travel experience combining cultural discovery with modern innovation. Visitors are practicing traditional exercises such as Baduanjin, drinking tea, exploring intangible cultural heritage, traveling on high-speed trains, making mobile payments and visiting technology hubs. In southwest China’s Yunnan Province, a popular destination for international tourists, travelers staying four to seven days accounted for 35 percent of visitors, while 23 percent stayed for more than a week, according to a Trip.com official. Juan Antonio of Spain is among them. During his eighth trip to China this summer, he traveled to Yunnan after reading several books about the province before his arrival. In Kunming, the provincial capital, he visited Yuantong Temple, a Buddhist site dating back 1,200 years. “Here, an ancient temple gazes calmly across at a high-rise a hundred meters away. That’s the China I came to understand,” Antonio said. His itinerary includes traveling from northwest Yunnan to the south, with stops in Dali to experience ethnic tie-dye, Lijiang to see traditional Naxi homes, Shangri-La to watch the sunrise over snow-capped mountains and Yuanyang to admire its famous rice terraces. For Dutch visitor Bilal Badri, a trip to Chongqing was inspired by the video game “Cyberpunk 2077.” At an observation deck atop a skyscraper, he stepped out over the edge in a safety harness and posed against the city’s illuminated nightscape for what he described as a “once-in-a-lifetime shot.” “The whole city looked very cyberpunk,” he said, adding that Chongqing’s distinctive experiences offer visitors opportunities to explore the city beyond conventional sightseeing. Similar experiences are being reported across China as the summer travel surge reflects the country’s continued growth in inbound tourism. Data from the National Immigration Administration showed that China recorded 22.91 million inbound visits by foreign nationals in the first half of this year, up 20.4 percent year on year. Of those visitors, 77.7 percent benefited from visa-free entry arrangements. “A China that pursues peaceful development, buzzes with innovation, and pulses with cultural richness is winning ever-greater trust and recognition around the world,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a regular news briefing in late July. “We welcome more international friends to come and feel the warmth and vitality of a Chinese summer for themselves,” he said.

Bangladesh on Monday marked the 103rd birth anniversary of internationally acclaimed painter SM Sultan with a day-long celebration in his native Narail district, honouring an artist who once shared exhibition space with Pablo Picasso and Salvador Dali yet spent his life painting barefoot farmers in a mud-walled village studio. The programmes, organised by Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy in association with the SM Sultan Sangrahashala and the district administration, were held at the SM Sultan Memorial Museum and Shishu Sworgo (Children's Paradise) and the District Shilpakala Academy in Narail. The day's events included an art camp featuring 20 local artists, a painting festival and exhibition involving more than 300 children from Shishu Sworgo, the newly launched "Sultan Sammanona Padak" (Sultan Honour Medal) presentation, a discussion on the artist's life and work, and a cultural programme. Cultural Affairs Minister Nitai Roy Chowdhury, speaking at the event, said Sultan's stature extended far beyond Narail or the banks of the Padma. "This world-famous painter belongs not just to us in Narail, but to the whole of Bangladesh and the world," he said, announcing that the Sultan Sammanona Padak, introduced this year, will place special focus on school-based initiatives to nurture young artists from rural Bangladesh. "If children in small village schools are encouraged in art and given the opportunity, their intellect will awaken and flourish, and they will be able to stand tall," the minister said. Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy Director General, poet Rezauddin Ahmed (Rezauddin Stalin), described Sultan as the most humane and life-affirming artist Bangladesh has produced. "He is the greatest painter of agrarian civilisation, a pride of Narail, of greater Jashore, of Bangladesh and of the entire world," he said, expressing hope that children growing up at Shishu Sworgo will one day become artists in Sultan's own mould. Born Sheikh Muhammad Sultan on August 10, 1923, the artist became known simply as SM Sultan, an icon whose canvases evoke rural Bengal much as poets Jibanananda Das or Jasimuddin might have painted it, had they traded pens for brushes. Unlike abstract or cubist art, which often demands interpretation even from its own creators, Sultan's work speaks for itself at first glance. His most distinctive signature was the muscular, almost superhuman physique he gave to Bengal's peasants, a striking departure from the frail, emaciated figures typically associated with rural farmers.

More than a dozen men and women work at wooden looms, moving shuttles through rows of wool yarn and pulling each thread tightly into place as they weave Pulu, a traditional woolen fabric that has been used on the Tibetan plateau for centuries. They work at the Ethnic Huaji Handwoven Cooperative in Shannan, where artisans are working to preserve one of Tibet’s oldest weaving traditions while also providing jobs for local people. Founded in 2008 by Tibetan artisan Pasang, the cooperative employs more than 100 local residents, including people with disabilities. It also teaches younger Tibetans the traditional craft, which Pasang feared was gradually disappearing.