Sunamganj and the haors: Tanguar, Niladri and folk poets

Tanguar Haor under the 2026 boat rules, Niladri Lake, the Jadukata below Barikka Tila and the homes of Hason Raja and Shah Abdul Karim, with a 3-day route.

Sunamganj is the low-lying, water-bound corner of the Sylhet division. For much of the year a large part of the district is under water: the haors, wide bowl-shaped basins between the rivers, fill with rain and runoff from the hills until villages stand out like islands and boats take the place of roads. When the water drains in winter, the same land turns green and then gold with rice.

Along the northern edge the hills of Meghalaya rise straight out of the plain, and rivers such as the Jadukata come down from them clear and fast. This chapter covers the haor country and its border hills, Sunamganj town on the Surma, and two great poets of Bangla folk song, Hason Raja and Shah Abdul Karim, whose songs are sung across Bangladesh.

Land, history and people

Sunamganj became a district in 1984. It runs from the foot of the Meghalaya hills in the north to the lowlands of Habiganj and Kishoreganj in the south, and Banglapedia counts the whole district as haor country. The word haor is usually explained as the local pronunciation of sagar, the sea, which is exactly what the basins look like in August.

The area was part of the ancient kingdom of Laur, and the village of Nabagram near the Jadukata is honoured as the birthplace of the Hindu religious teacher Advaita Acharya; the Panatirtha bathing festival on the river nearby is said to have been held for more than 500 years. After the conquest of Sylhet in 1303 under the spiritual lead of Hazrat Shahjalal, Shah Kamal Quhafa made his seat at Shaharpara, and the region later passed to local sultans, the Mughals and the British. The history of Sylhet tells the longer story.

The district suffered in 1971. On 31 August the Pakistan army killed 126 people by firing on a meeting in the compound of Sreerampur High School, and Sunamganj was freed on 7 December. Kakon Bibi, a freedom fighter from the district, was later awarded the Bir Protik.

Above all, Sunamganj is known for song. Besides Hason Raja and Shah Abdul Karim, the district gave the country singers such as Nirmalendu Chowdhury, and folk music remains a living tradition here. See People, languages and culture for more.

The haor year

Life here follows the water. In the monsoon the rivers rise with rain and runoff from the hills of India, and the haors flood up to 6 metres deep for seven or eight months. Villages become islands reached by boat, and fishing takes over; the haors are among the most important fishing grounds in the country. From July to September strong winds can raise waves big enough to damage homesteads.

As the water drains in winter, farmers plant boro, the dry-season rice, in the exposed soil. For many haor families it is the only crop of the year, so the harvest in April and May decides how the next twelve months go. Earth embankments ring the fields to hold back early floods, and when they fail the loss is immediate.

That is why early flash floods are the haor's great fear. In late March 2017, weeks before harvest, heavy rain and hill water from across the border overtopped and broke embankments in six districts. Sunamganj was the worst hit: by The Daily Star's count, of about 160,000 hectares of boro, some 113,000 went under water and nearly 100,000 were completely destroyed. Fish and ducks died in large numbers, families sold cattle and valuables, and farmers who grow rice queued to buy it at subsidised stalls.

In June 2022 a different flood came, after the heaviest rain in decades over parts of Meghalaya. About 94 per cent of Sunamganj town went under water, roads and power failed, and an estimated 7.2 million people were affected across the north-east. If you travel after a big flood, expect broken roads and slow journeys, and read Monsoon in Sylhet first.

Sunamganj town and Hason Raja

Sunamganj town stands on the Surma and has been a municipality since 1960. It is mainly a market and administrative centre, and for most visitors the place to change from bus to motorbike or boat, but the riverbank is pleasant in the evening and the town has one sight worth a morning.

That is the home of Hason Raja, born on 21 December 1854 into a Muslim zamindar family at Tegharia, in the old Lakshmansree pargana. He took charge of the family young, after his elder half-brother and his father died within about 40 days of each other. He founded schools and mosques, gave land for public use and spent heavily on the birds and animals he kept, and his poetry, rooted in Sufism, turned questions of the soul into songs ordinary people could sing.

His songs were gathered in Hason Udas and Shaukhin Bahar, and the collected Hason Raja Samagra holds about 500 poems and songs. Rabindranath Tagore discussed him as a village poet of East Bengal in his 1930 Hibbert Lectures, and much later the writer and filmmaker Humayun Ahmed brought his songs to new listeners through films and television. He died in 1922: most sources give 6 December, others 7 or 8 December, and one edition of Banglapedia says November.

The family home stands on the bank of the Surma at Tegharia, behind a gate marked Hason Rajar Bari. His own thatched house was destroyed in the 1897 earthquake; the present buildings were put up by later generations. When The Financial Express visited in 2010, a small museum kept by his family showed his chair and table, a walking stick, clothes, bird cages, a sword, wooden sandals and handwritten copies of his songs, and his grave lies near the house. In Sylhet city, the Museum of Rajas at Rajakunjo also tells the family's story.

The museum is part of a family home. Check opening times in town before you go, dress modestly and treat the grave as you would any place of prayer.

Chhatak

Upstream on the Surma, Chhatak is the district's industrial town. Its cement works, founded in 1937 by the Assam Bengal Cement Company and run since 1 July 1982 by the state-owned Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation, has relied on limestone imported from Meghalaya. There is little here for most visitors.

Shah Abdul Karim and Ujandhal

Shah Abdul Karim, known across the country as Baul Samrat, the emperor of baul song, was born on 15 February 1916 in Derai upazila. He learned from the bauls Rashid Uddin and Shah Ibrahim Mastan Baksh and wrote more than 1,600 songs about love, equality, compassion and faith. He received the Ekushey Padak in 2001 and died in Sylhet on 12 September 2009.

His life is tied to the Kalni river and the village of Ujandhal on its bank, where he lived from 1957 and composed. Two of his books carry the river in their titles, Kalnir Dheu (1981) and Kalnir Kooley (2001). Songs such as Agey Ki Shundor Din Kataitam, Gari Chole Na and Keno Piriti Baraila Re Bondhu are known all over Bangladesh.

Ujandhal is a quiet riverside village, not a museum. The best time to go is the two-day Shah Abdul Karim Loko Utshob, a folk festival held there every year since 2006, usually in February, by the Shah Abdul Karim Parishad, whose president is his son Shah Nur Jalal. Derai lies south of Sunamganj town; ask locally about the current route, especially after floods.

Tanguar Haor by boat

Tanguar Haor is the district's most important wetland and its best-known trip. It lies in Tahirpur and Madhyanagar upazilas below the Meghalaya hills (older sources say Dharmapasha). Banglapedia gives about 100 square km with 46 villages and some 120 beels, while recent reports count 54 linked beels and 88 villages in and around the haor; the Ramsar site covers 9,500 hectares. It was declared an Ecologically Critical Area in 1999 and listed as a Ramsar wetland of international importance on 10 July 2000. More than 140 kinds of freshwater fish live here, Ramsar records at least 208 bird species, 98 of them migratory, and hijal and koroch trees stand in the water. Drilling for oil or gas is banned within 10 km.

The classic trip has long been a houseboat from Tahirpur for one or two nights, with meals cooked on board. As the fleet grew, to about 200 houseboats by one activist's count in 2025, reports of plastic waste, noise and unregulated tourism led the Sunamganj district administration to act. On 22 June 2025 it suspended houseboat movement in and around the haor's watchtower area until further notice. On 2 August 2026 it went further: under the Tanguar and Hakaluki Haor Protection Order, 2025, it banned all houseboats and tourist boats from entering or operating in the haor's Ecologically Critical Area until further notice, and required the owners and operators of every boat working on the haor to register with the district administration. A Prothom Alo travel piece later that month said tourist boats could still travel through Matian Haor and along the Baulai river to Tekerghat; check the current position with the district administration before you book.

The August 2026 notice also sets rules for boats that carry tourists:

• Every boat working on the haor must be registered with the district administration (the deadline was 10 August 2026); do not board one that is not.
• No loud music, microphones or parties on board.
• No single-use plastic and nothing thrown into the water; houseboats need septic tanks, at least two bins and water filters.
• Enough life jackets, lifebuoys and fire extinguishers on every boat, and a code of conduct explained before each trip.
• Houseboats may be no longer than 100 feet.
• No trips in storms, heavy rain or lightning.
• The visitor guidelines issued in June 2025 also ban fishing, hunting, collecting eggs, cutting trees, campfires and detergents, and ask you to watch wildlife from a distance.

The rules were tightened in 2025 and again in 2026, and may change again. Before you book, check the latest notice from the Sunamganj district administration, ask the operator for its registration, and choose one that can explain how it handles waste. For cabins, costs and packing, see our Tanguar Haor houseboat guide.

June to October is the season of high water. From December to February the haor shrinks, boats are fewer and migratory ducks arrive. Book weeks ahead for Eid and Friday nights.

Tekerghat and Niladri Lake

At Tekerghat, on the border in Tahirpur, the hills of Meghalaya come right down to the plain. Limestone was dug here in large amounts, and the abandoned quarry, very deep, filled with water. That is Niladri Lake: a blue pool among grassy mounds, with green ridges and the border fence on the slopes beyond. Its official name is Shaheed Siraj Lake, after Sirajul Islam, a freedom fighter killed in 1971 while helping to free the Sachna Bazar and Jamalganj area, and later honoured with the Bir Bikram.

Boats moor at Tekerghat for the night, and people climb the mounds for sunset. The lake can be visited all year. In the dry season you can also come by road: a 2021 guide put a reserved motorbike from Sunamganj at about 300 to 400 taka, but fares change, so agree the price before you set off. Barikka Tila and the Jadukata are a short ride away.

The lake is deep right from the edge. Non-swimmers should stay out, and even strong swimmers should keep close to the shore. Stay well back from the border fence and follow BGB instructions.

Laur, the Jadukata, Barikka Tila and Shimul Bagan

East of Tekerghat the Jadukata comes out of the Meghalaya hills and spreads over a wide bed of sand and stone. Its banks are the old land of Laur, and this short stretch of river holds three of the district's favourite stops.

Barikka Tila

Barikka Tila is a grassy hill above the river, a short climb with a wide view of the Jadukata curving out of the hills. Go at sunrise, when mist often lies on the water, or late in the afternoon. A few simple eating places stand nearby, motorbikes run on to Tekerghat along the river, and small boats ferry people and motorbikes across the Jadukata. A 2021 guide put the ride at about 120 taka and the crossing at a few taka; agree current fares before you go.

Panatirtha and Shah Arefin

Each year on the Madhukrishna Trayodashi of Chaitra, in March or April, Hindu pilgrims bathe in the Jadukata for Panatirtha, also called the Mahabaruni or Ganga snan. Tradition holds that on that day the waters of the seven seas flow into the river, so that bathing here is as purifying as bathing in the Ganges. Pilgrims also gather at Nabagram, Advaita Acharya's birthplace, and a Baruni fair sets up beside the river. At the same time, at Laurer Garh on the east bank, the three-day urs and fair at the shrine of the Sufi saint Shah Arefin usually draws its own crowds. Attendance has traditionally run into the lakhs.

Expect packed roads and crowded boats during Panatirtha and the urs. Dress modestly, keep a respectful distance from bathing pilgrims and do not photograph people in the water.

Shimul Bagan

Shimul Bagan at Manigaon in Tahirpur is a plantation of silk cotton trees near the Jadukata. A local public representative, Joynal Abedin, planted about 3,000 saplings in 2002, and his family runs the garden. In the Bangla months of Falgun and Chaitra, from about mid-February, the branches and the ground beneath turn red with flowers. Outside the bloom it is simply a shady grove. Weekday mornings are far quieter than Fridays.

Food, stays and getting around

Food

The haor eats fish. Tanguar alone has more than 140 species; among the commonest are air, baim, tengra, gulsha and small fish such as titna and kakia, which local kitchens fry, cook in light curries or mash into bhorta. Ducks are raised on the haors too, and duck meat appears on local menus. Never eat migratory birds, which are protected, and politely refuse anything that looks like wild game. For Sylheti dishes, see Food and tea.

Where to stay

Sunamganj town has the district's main hotels and guesthouses and suits an early start. Beyond town, rooms are scarce, and until the 2026 ban most visitors to Tanguar and Tekerghat slept on a houseboat. In the dry season some travellers base themselves in Sunamganj and make day trips by motorbike. See stays in Sunamganj.

Getting there

Most people come through Sylhet, by bus or hired car on the Sylhet–Sunamganj road. Direct buses also run from Dhaka's Sayedabad and Mohakhali terminals; a 2021 guide put the journey at about 6 hours and the fare at about 550 taka, so check current fares. There is no railway to Sunamganj town, but in the rains some travellers take an overnight train from Dhaka to Mohanganj in Netrokona and come on by road and boat across the haor to Tekerghat. That route comes from the same 2021 guide and may be affected by the 2026 boat ban, so ask before you rely on it.

Getting around

From Sunamganj town, motorbike taxis and CNGs leave from near the big bridge over the Surma for Tahirpur, Barikka Tila and Tekerghat. Agree the fare and stops before you set off, and ask for a helmet. Where they are allowed to run, houseboats leave from the ghats at Tahirpur, Saheb Bari Ghat among them, and in the monsoon smaller engine boats can be hired there by the hour or the day. In winter, when the water is low, more of the circuit is done by road. More in Getting there and getting around.

A three-day route

Day 1: Sunamganj town to Tahirpur

Leave Sylhet early for Sunamganj town. Visit Hason Raja's home and museum at Tegharia and walk along the Surma, then ride to Tahirpur in the afternoon. Board a registered boat only if the current rules allow your route; otherwise, and in the dry season, sleep in town.

Day 2: on the water to Tekerghat

Spend the day on the water. Since the August 2026 ban, tourist boats have been reported to keep outside the Ecologically Critical Area, running through Matian Haor and along the Baulai to Tekerghat; confirm the route before you set off. Swim only beside the boat in calm water, with a life jacket, and climb the mounds at Niladri Lake for sunset before the boat moors for the night.

Day 3: Barikka Tila, Shimul Bagan and back

Ride to Barikka Tila for an early view over the Jadukata, cross the river to Shimul Bagan (in flower from about mid-February) and pass through Laur before heading back by road to Sunamganj and Sylhet.

With a fourth day, or if you come in February, add Ujandhal in Derai for the Shah Abdul Karim festival. In the dry season the whole circuit can be done by motorbike from Sunamganj in two long days. See when to go for the seasons.

Safety on the haor

The haor is wide open, and that is what makes it dangerous in bad weather. Lightning kills around 300 people a year across Bangladesh by UN estimates, many of them farmers working in the open, and the low, flat haor offers little shelter: over two days in late April 2026 at least 11 people died in strikes across several districts, among them two farmers harvesting rice in the haors of Sunamganj Sadar. From July to September strong winds can raise high waves on open water.

• Check the forecast before any boat trip and do not set out if storms are expected; boats are now required to stay in during storms, heavy rain and lightning.
• If lightning starts, get off the water and away from tall trees. A solid building is safest; if there is none, crouch low rather than lying flat.
• Wear a life jacket on deck and in small boats, keep children seated, and swim only beside the boat in calm water.
• Early flash floods can come in spring after heavy rain in the hills, and haor roads and crossings can go under quickly; ask locally before setting off.
• Tekerghat, Barikka Tila and the Jadukata are border areas. Stay on the Bangladesh side, carry ID and follow BGB instructions.
• Haor villages are close-knit and conservative. Dress modestly, ask before photographing people, especially women, and keep music low near villages, mosques and temples.
• Take every scrap of rubbish back to town.

For more on travelling lightly in the division, read Responsible travel.