📷 Moon Boats of Bangladesh

Five colorful moon boats rest on a beach along Bangladesh’s southeastern coast as the evening sky turns pink.

Where craftsmanship is shaped by sea and sand

I traveled to Bangladesh in February 2020 (just weeks before the world shut down), to document the incredible work of Voice of America journalists working in and around the Rohingya refugee camps near Cox’s Bazaar. During one evening’s drive back from the camps to our hotel, our exhaustion-fueled silence was broken with gasps of awe. A break in the tree line separating Marine Drive from the water revealed a row of magnificent boats on the sand. Suddenly rejuvenated, we stopped and spent more than an hour wandering between these beautiful crafts.

  • About a dozen moon boats line a wide beach beneath an orange-pink sunset on Bangladesh’s southeastern coast.
    A fleet of moon boats rests on the beach as sunset colors the sky above the Bay of Bengal.
  • A moon boat pushes through choppy waves on the Bay of Bengal beneath a pale blue sky off southeastern Bangladesh.
    A moon boat pushes through choppy water in the Bay of Bengal, its distinctive shape designed for navigating the waves and offshore sandbars.

  • A blue moon boat with yellow trim sits in front of a bright green boat as long flags wave from their raised tips.
    Flags fly from the high, curved tips of moon boats along Bangladesh’s southeastern coast.
  • Bright green fishing rope is coiled along the side of a green moon boat, with part of a red boat visible behind it.
    Green fishing rope echoes the vivid paint of a moon boat on Bangladesh’s southeastern coast.

Moon Boats, as they are called, are only found along Bangladesh’s southeastern coast (near Myanmar). Their striking shape is a mixture of art and design, allowing fisherman to cross sand bars just offshore and navigate among the waves in the Bay of Bengal.

  • A green moon boat with multicolored trim crosses the foreground in front of a vivid red boat with yellow trim.
    Bright paint and contrasting trim distinguish moon boats resting along the Bay of Bengal.
  • A wide sandy beach stretches toward two moon boats at right, one green and one blue with red-and-white stripes on its tip.
    Two moon boats punctuate a broad stretch of beach along Bangladesh’s southeastern coast.
  • Green fishing ropes lie inside the black hull of a moon boat with yellow-and-white trim, with blue and green boats behind it.
    Fishing rope is stored inside the dark hull of a moon boat edged in yellow and white.
  • The tall curved tip of a green moon boat reaches into the blue sky with a green flag flying from its peak.
    A green flag catches the wind from the soaring tip of a moon boat on Bangladesh’s coast.

“Elegance is simply the expression of the perfect harmony between form and function. The Bateau Lune is one of the finest illustrations of the creative genius who, over the centuries, has refined and polished this beautiful hull because you have to cross the helm to go to sea….I learn a lot by looking at the boats of Bangladesh and then going back to try to unravel the mystery of the specific use that has generated such beautiful shapes.”

Naval architect Marc Van Peteghem
  • The faint silhouette of a moon boat appears in the distance beneath a pink sunset over the Bay of Bengal.
    A moon boat nearly disappears into the distance as evening turns the sky pink over the Bay of Bengal.

Standing among the Moon Boats, I was struck with not only the craftsmanship and artistry of these vessels, but by the generations of ingenuity shaped by sea and sand.

Naturalist’s Notebook
hand drawn magnifying glass

Notice

What do you notice first – the colors, the shape, the flags? How do they work together?

hand drawn question mark

Ask yourself

What do the photographs not show?
– Who built the boat?
– How did they learn to build it?
– Who maintains it?
– Who fishes from it?
– Where does the catch go?

Posted In: Bangladesh, Art of Living, Cox's Bazaar, Inheritance in Motion, Sightlines

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