Treasures of Chittagong University Museum
With its hilly landscape and scenic natural beauty, Chittagong university campus attracts many visitors. Within the university campus is a rich museum that could become a hotspot for tourists. The only university-run specialised museum in the country, it has several thousand unique and priceless articles in its collection.
Established in 1973 as a specialised museum of the History department, the sheer growth of its collection eventually turned it into an autonomous museum.
At present there are five galleries in the museum housed at the central library of the university. The collection ranges from fossils dating back to several thousand years ago to works of contemporary artists.
In the archeological gallery, the museum houses twenty thousand year old fossils of wood and fish collected from Chittagong. Besides there are terracotta works of Paharpur Bihar and pictorial description of Chittagong’s evolution.
There are a total of 52 valuable sculptures made of touchstone dated between the eighth to twelfth century, in the sculpture gallery.
The list does not end here, there is the Islamic Art Gallery and traditional arts galley where there are coins of Sultani period, swords, canon of Mughal period, Qabin Nama (marriage agreement) written in Persian, designed wooden window, life-size dolls, toys, Palki, hand-loom etc made by local artisans.
The museum also has a contemporary art gallery which boasts works of artists like Kamrul Hasan and Zainul Abedin.
According to the museum authority, everyday over a hundred students and visitors visit the museum. But during special occasions the number increases to several thousand. Entrance to the museum is completely free. However due to constraint in space, a major collection of the museum cannot be displayed.
Prof Emran Hossain, who has been working as the museum director since 2006 said, they have proposed to build a separate building to house the museum. If that could be done, then the museum would see an increase in visitors.